Today something strange happened — I heard a undisputed, unstoppable giggle when most of the human noises that I hear are some form of whispers — ‘shh….’, ‘this is a library’ and when I am really out of luck I have to hear fast paced breathing of mostly two humans followed by some words used in filthy sense that I rather leave out of this for the sake of everyone. Back to giggle, listening to below conversation looks like giggle has reached the ears of Miss. Donna, that name suits her, she is actually a donno kind of a person, that was her answer to every question — ‘Donno’.
‘Hey, Kid what’s your name?’
‘It’s Tim mam.’
‘So, you Donno this is a library? Let me tell you then this is a library, you are not supposed to giggle, shout, cry, hum, or make any sort of noise. Following me?’
‘Yes mam.’
The answer was followed by a suppressed giggle when Miss. Donna left, then what, Tim decided to close me and move on to some new book. Before going he did call me old, read me once again, giggled and left. You know I was young once, when I was freshly painted and brought over into this library people used to bring me up to their noses, smell me deeply and give out a huge sigh in some sort of ecstasy. Now, well now I am all yellow which in book age means old; also I have that old page odor. Enough about me, that’s another quality of being old — going on and on, that kid Tim came back (recognized by his giggle) and torn me from the book even before I could say bye to my fellow page, it will have to live with a whole new page all of a sudden.
I have never stepped out of this library since the day I came in. I was read only item, too precious to lend out and get the opportunity to see the world, meet new people. I have heard some serious crazy stuff from pages of fellow books in library, one was even involved in fire and another one saw a person get shot, as I said crazy stuff but, me, I was here all my life getting from crispy white to soggy yellow. What can I say; sometimes it’s a crime to be precious.
He folded and kept me in one of his pants pocket. I felt some metal against my skin, multiple tiny round things. May be that’s what humans call money or dough or green beauty, you know all kinds of people read me and I have listened to them without complaining except fluttering out of irritation a few times over lipsing readers and blaming it all on wind. Few more voices and up-down movements of his legs confirmed that he is riding a bicycle and have few friends with him. All the while he was cycling that dough kept rubbing against me and create noise, most of the sounds created were noises just in different incarnation according to Miss. Donna (remember the donno girl).
I almost let out a scream when I saw Tim and his bunch dangling their feet from over a branch of a tree with the maximum width I have ever heard about. The only thing more terrifying than this is the fact that he is not even holding me tight enough, I could have easily been carried away by mischievous wind to avenge itself over false blames I have been putting over it for years and died getting caught in some pointy thing, obviously I don’t know how to fly. Tim is not giggling anymore he is laughing out loud. They are passing me around and for the first time in life someone is reading me out loud, I didn’t feel I am that funny, maybe I am to these kids or maybe I don’t enjoy myself, I am old now.
After laughing quite a bit on me, pulling out leaves and few tiny branches and singing (I loved this one) they again got on their bicycles. Let me tell you I learned few more names — Roger, Sam and Dexter, they were a team of four. This time he kept me in his front pocket, I admit am little scared but to my relief I am just a tiny bit outside, above the neck sort of ratio. As bicycle moved ahead leaving the road behind in its circular motion I felt cool breeze on my face, sweet Mother Nature. A tiny left bit of me got tore and flew away. That’s ok; I am anyways falling apart then why not do it while living?
We reached some sort of lake, these boys started slinging pebbles in lake and on each other, and one even hit me, now I know how pain feels. Even before I can look around a bit more Tim and his bunch jumped in water except Roger, don’t know why. It’s been few minutes now, I couldn’t feel my bottom half anymore. When I looked down it is all soggy. I…..I couldn’t see much below, now there is water in my eyes, I am dis…sol….ving…..m glad…ah..
Originally published at https://kaalni.com.
