Chapter 13: The Upside-Down Mapped on a Hawkins Gymnasium Floor

The note was delivered at half past seven in the morning, slipped under the hardware store door with the precise confidence of someone who had learned, recently and by necessity, to conduct operations without adult oversight.

Holmes found it when he came downstairs for the newspaper, which he had taken to purchasing from the corner stand two blocks east despite the fact that the Hawkins Post contained almost nothing of investigative value and a remarkable amount of information about a local dispute over the rezoning of a car park. The note was folded in thirds, the creases geometrically even, and written on a page torn from a spiral notebook in the particular blue ballpoint of institutional school supplies.

MR. HOLMES — EMERGENCY BRIEFING — HAWKINS MIDDLE SCHOOL GYM — 8 AM — IT'S IMPORTANT — BRING EL — COME IN THROUGH THE LOADING DOCK — HENDERSON