Page 36 of Legends and Librarians
I leapt in front of him before he opened it. “Uh, it’s fine right here.”
“Are you sure, ma’am?” he asked with a frown. “It’s no trouble to take it inside. I’d even help you unpack it if you’d like.”
He was so nice, exactly the type of person I wanted at this library. But not while the memory of those contractorsscreaming as they ran away still echoed fresh in my mind.
I smiled. “It’s fine. We’re in the middle of some remodels and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. You should stop back once we’re open again.”
“I’ll do that, thanks.” He gazed at the library fondly. “I fly over this mountain a lot and always wondered about this place. Glad to see it’s reopening.” As the box of books settled on the ground, he hopped back on his pegasus. “Thank you for your business and I hope to deliver here again soon.”
The pegasus leaping into the sky was a beautiful sight. I blocked the sun with my hand and followed them until they were a tiny dot and my eyes were watering. Seeing him excited for the library to reopen gave me hope that there were more people like us, more readers eager to browse these shelves again.
Now to find some help carrying all these books inside. The golem was crouched over by the new garden area we’d been working on. Raised flower beds surrounded the library, making use of the old patches we’d pulled down so the golem didn’t have to feel bad. Flowers already sprouted from them as the golem spent every minute tending to them, rocking back and forth on its heels like some kind of dance.
“How’s the gardening going?” I asked as I wandered over. “Do you like the new raised beds?”
A deep rumble sounded through his body. “Love.”
I couldn’t help but smile watching such a big golem shift dirt around with its fingertip to avoid disturbing the plants. Bright red flowers had been the first to sprout, poppies like the ones on the golem’s shoulders, but it looked like there were other kinds of plants too.
“I can’t wait to see them all in bloom,” I said. “Do you mind helping me carry a box of books inside?”
The vines in the golem’s body shifted as it stood up, lumbering over to the library’s front door. I had to run to keeppace with its long strides and the box was already inside and open by the time I got there.
“Thank you!”
The golem nodded, then trudged back outside to its happy place. I’d felt like a monster after seeing how upset the golem was about me tearing those patches down, so I was really glad it liked the gardens.
I pulled out a few books, admiring their vibrant covers. Each one was like a precious gem in a treasure chest. I sorted them into piles based on genre, stacking them on a nearby table, but there were a few I didn’t recognize. More than a few actually and there were multiple copies of them too.
“I think they mixed up our order,” I mumbled, searching through the box to see what else was wrong.
Lisa joined me. “I might have...altered your order a bit.”
“You did what?”
“I’m a librarian here too, you know.” She gave me an innocent smile and a shrug. “So I added a few books you overlooked.”
I sighed. “We’re on a tight budget, you can’t just add things like that without talking to me.”
“And you shouldn’t have ordered anything without talking tome.”
We stared at each other for a while before I broke down. “Fine, I’m sorry. Please tell me about the books you added.”
And they better be worth it otherwise I’d be sending them right back to the store.
Lisa ran her fingers lightly over a cover. “I thought you might want to get to know us better by reading the books we all came from. Maybe the patrons would like that too.”
“Your books?” My mouth dropped open.
I’d asked them about their books when I first came here, but they were cagey about it and I’d never seen them on the shelves.So I’d focused on the repairs instead, but I could have looked into it more. I’d known a few of their stories already and the rest...I just hadn’t had time for yet.
Was I a terrible librarian? There were books that had literally come to life right in front of me and I hadn’t even read their stories yet.
“Thank you, Lisa,” I said, with as much sincerity as I could. “I really appreciate you helping me with this. I’d love to read your stories.”
“I thought you might,” she said. “We don’t like anyone touching our original books, but these duplicates are fine.”
Ah, so that’s why I hadn’t seen their books anywhere: they’d been protecting the ones they came out of. That made sense. It made me happy that she wanted to share her story with me now though. Like I’d earned her respect as a librarian.
