It smelled like fresh paint and old books, and maybe a little mold. There was a man in the back corner reading a comic book, because he thought he was too old and didn’t want people to say so, and the librarian that came in to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays thought he was terribly cute.
Welcome to the library.
“Psst, Kate!” Jaden hiss-whispered to me, tugging on my new shirt even though he knew I didn’t like it when he did. “Come look at this.” I smacked his hand away but followed the little bugger nonetheless—Mom had told me to take care of him, and since my going out on Saturday depended on this, I decided not to push it by teasing him.
We weaved through the aisles of books over to the little kid area, and when he finally stopped in the corner with the overstuffed pink elephant nearly falling off its perch, I found myself hoping he didn’t want me to get that thing down for him. I’d always been a little scared of it, with those big bulging eyes and the ridiculously short trunk. It was a pure contradiction of itself, with cat-ears and a pig’s tail, like whoever had made it hadn’t know exactly what he’d wanted it to be until he was finished, and obviously by then it was too late.
I tousled Jaden’s dirty blonde hair because I knew how it bothered him and continued to hope that that elephant didn’t expect to come down any time soon.
“Kate, stoppit! I’ll tell Mommy,” he warned, and shook a cute little finger at me in a perfect imitation of one of my threats to him. I rolled my eyes and shrugged – for all he knew someone else had tousled that silly head, right? – waiting for him to spit out the reason we’d trekked all the way over here. I swore I’d sock him if he’d brought me all this way to squeal, Just kidding! and zoom off.
“Jaden, what is it?” I snapped, flicking his ear and tapping my foot, now totally out of what small patience I’d had.
Jaden smiled his tiny, mischievous smile, and before I could say or do a thing, he grasped the long, trailing pink tail belonging to the creepy pink cat-elephant-pig thing, and swoosh! It came tumbling down onto my head, grossly bulbous butt over way-too-small ears. I crumpled to the floor, more with surprise than ‘cause it weighed a lot.
“Gotcha!” he squeaked, and as I pushed the hideous pigcaphant off me, I saw how dark it was outside on the ugly orange-brick street, and wondered a minute if we should go outside before the whole place closed down—then Jaden tackled me from behind and I forgot to remember anything.
“Jaden—get—off—me!” I shrieked, even though we were in a library and someone was bound to come along and complain about all the squealing and banging. Luckily I managed to pull him off me before the librarian heard, and by the time a plastic-looking blonde woman and her little kid came down the aisle, I’d already smacked him soundly on the head and threatened to take away every treat he could ever want ‘til the beginning of forever. He was quiet after that.
With Jaden’s help, I hoisted the ugly pink elephigat back onto the top of the bookshelf, and we were just going to the front to look over the movies before we left when I spotted one of my favorite books from when I was little.
“Oh-em-gee!” I squealed, because I loved the way it sounded, and dived towards the little yellow book sticking out of a shelf under the hideous catigant. “The Lion Who Laid an Egg! You’re gonna love this, Jaden.” Surprisingly, instead of protesting just for the sake of it as he usually did, Jaden plopped himself down next to me, rubbing his eyes so I knew it was mostly ‘cause he was tired.
But of course, this is where things go wrong.
We read the book through, from the start when the lion swallows a duck whole to the bit where he coughs it back up and it slaps him for his ‘silliness’ – okay, I really wanted to say something much worse, but Mom would’ve killed me – and then again, since little bro seemed to like it a lot.
But finally we got through it, and I stood up, pulling Jaden to his feet and handing him the book to put away. He was tired by now he didn’t even try to make me do it instead, just shoved it back into the bookcase in the wrong place and stumbled in the general direction of the front. Huh, usually he doesn’t calm down ‘til his head hits the pillow, I thought, and then figured it must be the mold working the spell on him.
Funny thing is, it wasn’t until we’d stumbled into the main aisles that I realized the lights were flickering. Was I tired too, and just hadn’t noticed it? And why did I have that funny twisty feeling in my stomach that I only got when something nasty was about to happen?
And then, with a final shhh-fizzzz, the ugly fluorescent lights switched off, and my little brother and I were stuck in the dark in a moldy library, all alone.
“Oh dammit,” I muttered, though I was strictly forbidden to say any such thing in front of Jaden. “Quick, we gotta get to the front—” Before I could complete the sentence, there came the sound of a door creaking shut on rusty hinges, then a click as it was locked by the librarian.
“Oh no!” he cried, in his baby-brother voice that reminded me I was in charge and need to think of a way to get out…and fast. “What’re we gonna do, Kit?” It was what he’d called me when he was just a tiny thing, and it made the nasty knot in my stomach worse, if that was possible.
I didn’t answer, only squeezed his hand tight and pulled us both to the heavy oak doors, rattling them desperately like it might make either me or him feel better. We pounded and shouted and kicked those horrible doors, but they didn’t budge, and though I didn’t tell Jaden, I knew that the librarian was sort of half-deaf. She could be standing just about ten feet away in the foyer and not hear us.
Jaden kept hitting the door with his little fists, and I set my forehead against the heavy wood, trying to think of a way to calm him before he went totally hysterical. Something, come on, please, just a tiny something, oh please!
“Jay,” I said at last, quietly, as a tiny something seemed to flutter into my head. Taking his hands in my own, I sat down, pulling him into my lap. I gently brushed the tears of fear from his hot, still slightly chubby face, and kissed his fingers, humming a tune I couldn’t remember the words for. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry. In a minute, Mom’ll get here, and when she finds the doors locked, she’ll just call a locksmith and we’ll be out in a second.”
He sniffled, leaning back against me like he hadn’t done since he was two or something. “Promise?” he said, and it came out in a small, wavering whisper that broke my heart and melted me into a little puddle all at once.
“Promise,” I said. I didn’t tell him that Mom had expected us to go and get ice cream down the street first, that she wouldn’t be here for at least another hour, or that since it was Saturday, the locksmith that always helped us out when Dad locked his keys in the car was closed. There weren’t any others in the town that Mom could reach without first hunting down a phone book, and even then they might be closed, too. I took a deep breath, pushing all my fear away for Jaden’s sake, and squeezed him tight to me.
“And think about it, Jay. We have this whole place to ourselves! We can run, and play, and be as loud as we want, and no one will—” And that was when I was interrupted by a sound. It was a little sound, something you might hear at a park, sitting at home, or in the car on a long trip to somewhere you wish you didn’t have to go. You might hear it on a plane, or in a train, and maybe, just maybe, while you were climbing a tree. But most importantly, it was a sound you heard always, always at the library.
From deep, deep in the darkest reaches of the moldy library, there came the sound of a page turning.
***
Don't need nitpicks, thanks. Any and all opinions and criticism on the actual piece are appreciated--and if you can, tell me: Do you like it like this, or do you want the story to continue? =D
My awesome elephant is loving it to that is why he is dancing!!
