Carla parked her lime green pick-up in front of the library, and stepped out, shielding her eyes against the sun. She could remember when she dreaded the sunlight. When she was hung over she reacted like a vampire, shielding away from the brightness, which only caused the pain in her head to intensify.
She didn’t miss those days. Sometimes she missed being able to forget everything, and just vanish into a glass, but what had that gotten her? She had a crushed car and a failed marriage to show for her drinking days.
She glanced back towards the Hub parking lot. Paul’s car was still there.
She could feel her blood begin to boil. She took a deep breath, and turned away.
It’s not my problem, she reminded herself.
The giant gold letters on the front of the Spirit Lake Public Library seemed to glow, welcoming her to another quiet day in solitude. It was going to be her, and a stack of musty old books for the rest of the day, and that was fine by her. Right now she was not in the mood to deal with people.
"Carla, you’re early." Harvey Ridge stuck his head out of the large glass doors, a big smile plastered on his face.
Well, it would be her, a bunch of old books, and a very happy College Freshman all day.
It was close enough to perfect.
"Morning Harvey." Carla smiled and waved.
Being around him always made her feel so old. Sure, she was only twenty six, but she had been through so much more than him. Not many years separated the two, but a whole lot of experience did.
Carla made her way inside, and stepped over to the main desk, signing herself into her computer. The library was pretty empty, and she hoped it would stay that way for the rest of the day.
"I saw you over at the Hub last night. I was going to stop over and say hi, but you looked kind of busy." Harvey was leaning on the counter, a big smile on his face.
"What were you doing at the Hub? You’re not old enough to drink." Carla tried to pay attention to the list of missing books that suddenly graced her computer screen. How could she have missed so many?
She glanced over to the stack that had yet to be checked in, and sighed. Whoever had taken over after her shift the night before hadn’t been doing their job.
"Roy lets me hang out there. Won’t let me drink, though." He gave a little "aw shucks" gesture with his arm.
"Good for Roy." She walked over to the stack of books and began to sort through them, matching up the titles with those on her list. So far, so good.
She paused, remembering the note on Julie’s gate.
"Hey, Harvey." She glanced up at him. "Have you ever heard of the BRS?"
He gave her a slightly puzzled look. "No."
She nodded.
It looked like she had her own little research project for the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment