the loveliest librarian

Miss Pynchon was already at her desk when Monique showed up that Monday morning. Monique looked nervously at the clock on the desk: eight-thirty. She was half an hour early. She breathed a sigh of relief; for a moment, she thought her watch might be wrong, and she might have been late. In the Library, the consequences of being late were extreme.

“Good morning, Miss Pynchon,” said Monique meekly taking her seat at the desk opposite her supervisor’s. There was a stack of antique books for processing; it was Monique’s job to affix the bar codes on the inside front cover and record the process in her logbook. This stack of books, like all books in Monique’s section of the Library, was a collection of antique books that Miss Pynchon had acquired at auction on behalf of an anonymous donor.

Miss Pynchon didn’t look up from her work as she said, “Good morning, Monique. That’s a new dress, isn’t it?”

Monique nodded. “Yes. I bought it on Sunday at Flirt!”

Miss Pynchon didn’t look up as she said, “A little tight, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Miss Pynchon.”

“Tsk, tsk.” [p. 3]

Title: Borrowing Privileges
Creator: Morley, N. T.
Relation: The Library
Publisher: Venus Book Club
Date: 2002
Type: Text