Second Hand Book

Sometimes books tell more than the tales between their covers. Why did Jen trade or sell this cookbook lovingly inscribed by "Mom and Dad and Pat and David" only last Christmas, on another continent? Has she no longer an interest in natural foods (the book's purlieu), or found a sweetness in love equal to honey? Does she back-pack dried beans and bedroll into the wilderness country where cookbooks are a kind of cheating on the laws of challenge? Was the book lost and sold by the finder in need of money, enough for a meal or toward a night's lodging? And what of Mom and Dad and Pat and David: have they heard from Jen, do they worry about the inexperienced cook's problems with life's raw ingredients? The love inscribed here burns for an answer I hope was given.