Friday, June 29, 2007

As good as it gets...

~ It was Charlene Farrisworth's job to shush people, and she took great pride in that.
She'd gone to great lengths to become the stereotypical librarian. She'd dyed her hair gray, wearing it in a tight bun on the back of her head. She wore dowdy cardigans and tweed skirts. She wore bulky oxfords and thick glasses which she'd had to have specially made, her natural vision was 20/20. She was madly obsessive about her obscenely obsolete card catalog, going through it at least 5 times a week to check for misplaced or damaged cards.
Her favorite ritual of all though, was the stamping of the "date due" cards. At the front of her desk, in a neat semi-circle, stood all the required paraphernalia. Blank cards, manipulable rubber stamp, a fresh ink pad.
With relish (and taking her time, the patron could wait) Ms Farrisworth would reverently open the pad, double check the date on the stamp, gently ink it and then abruptly, and with a good measure of muscle behind it, brand the numbers on the virgin card. Tucking it lovingly and snugly into the pocket and snapping the book shut Ms Farrisworth would hand it to the patron, take on an almost disdainful tilt of the head and say her favorite line in all the world.
"That will be due back in 3 weeks." ~
~ From my world

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! :D You have a way of making anything and everything funny.

Joy Anderson said...

Heya Renee!
I searched you on the internet...I lost ur phone#..and am tryin to get in contact. cool site! my email; eanderson33@ivytech.edu.