Subtitled: Lovers of the Lbrary.1
Today, I worked at the library, where I could set up my laptop and not get tempted to eat lots of pastries, like I do at my usual Wi-Fi haunts. Because I’d designed this particular library’s website, I knew all about working spaces, and also how I could get some museum passes fast.
I scoop up my art museum and car show passes (eclectic is the name of the school vacation culture game), and walk up the stairs of NarLib2. I notice the new decor in their new building. The carpet smells like a new car and looks tidy and tight against the edges of the wall. Dark and light grey. Blues too.
I’m half way up the stairs and see a wiggle of movement at eye level, and brush my hair out of my face. That wasn’t it.
It was a little grey mouse, 3 or 4 steps ahead of me heading upstairs too. She made her way up each stair riser like a busy little ditty, like she did this all the time and had things to do. We kept pace with each other.
The mouse arrived at the second floor a moment before I did and ran straight ahead to vanish. I looked around for where she may have gone, but could not find a hole, any kind of harborage, or even an open door.
So, Library Quiet Room it is:
Unpack. Plug in.
Mouse is out, I won’t do track-pads.
Work, write, code, create. Report.
Four hours later, I’m toast, and decide I won’t tell the library ladies about what I saw. I’m guessing some know, and maybe think that the mouse is cute too. I imagine she’s a time honored resident, having moved here during the build and keeping the stacks safe day and night. She should be in a cute children’s story: the busy little mouse who lives in the library. But I don’t have time to write, not much anyway.
And a lady peers into this quiet study room while I pack up. She darts her head around the 4 edges of small sign on the large glass door. She has grayish hair, a tan-grey coat, and light grey pants. She spies me and the two other denizens, wrinkles her little nose, and scampers away.
“Calligraphy”
phone markup art by EMWe Art
FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT
- If there were a single institution I would protect over all others, it would be public libraries. Books, ideas, digital news, events, spaces to work, audio books and freedom of thinking for free. I appreciate the value libraries bring to everyone in our communities. Please be sure to protect yours. ↩︎
- If you live in Rhode Island, you can surely figure out the location. I’m protecting the innocent here, namely, the mouse. ↩︎