The Back Room

At the library

It was a sunny September afternoon. Perfectly cloudless and with enough of a breeze that it wasn't too hot. All he wanted was to be outside with his friends, but Lucas was stuck in the back of his mom's car. His sister had some big project so she had to go to the library. Lucas would have stayed home, but his mom wouldn't hear of it. "It's good for ," she said. "You almost never read books."

"But it's so nice outside! Aren't you always saying that being active is the way to be healthy?"

"I also always say that nothing is good without moderation. Besides, we're already here. Maybe you'll find a book you like."

Lucas followed his mom inside, still sulking. She didn't mind going to the library. She loved reading. In fact, his mom was probably the biggest reader he'd ever met.

After a minute or so Lucas realized he had been standing in the entryway the whole time. He went to the nearest chair and sat down, resigning himself to sit there the entire time. He wanted to prove that libraries were boring.

So Lucas sat. And sat. And sat. He watched the seconds tick by. Each minute felt like an eternity. Two hours was a long time for a fifth graded to sit. After ten seemingly endless minutes, he gave up. Wandering the library sounded like a good idea, at least better than staring at the clock.

At the front of the library was, of course, the front desk. The librarian sitting there had her nose in a title called "50 Ways to File Your Books." It looked very long and very, very boring. On some shelves nearby were picture books, there to get little kids interested in reading. Those were followed by shelves upon shelves of books on science. Lucas did not want to read books on science. If  he wanted to read. Why would he want to read? He hated books.

Next there were shelves of every kind of picture book, surrounding a  small circular table and a few little kid chairs. Even if he wanted books, these were for little kids. After those were books on history. He ignored them. Since he hated history, he would hate the books. Right?

Lucas passed novellas and textbooks, tall tales and realistic fiction. With each section he assured himself that he did not want books, but with a little less conviction each time.

Soon there were only a few shelves between him and the back wall of the library.  Now Lucas was truly bored. He looked around and saw a small door marked STORAGE. There was a librarian sitting nearby, so he said, "What's behind that door?"

"Just extra books that don't fit on the shelves. You can check it out if you like," answered the librarian.

"Okay." With nothing else to do, Lucas pulled open the door and went inside.

It was completely dark except for a small window in the far wall attempting to make a difference. He reached for the light switch and found it lit the room surprisingly well. The room was relatively large and packed to the brim with boxes. Some were pushed away a little to make room for a chair and a small table. On a whim, Lucas opened a box and found it was full of comic books. The next was chapter books and after that short stories. He opened box after box and found everything from superheroes to adventure, sorcerers to sci fi. Lucas grabbed a book at random and started reading.

He was halfway through the second book when there was a knock at the door. He looked up and said, "Come in."

"Where have you BEEN?! We were supposed to leave an hour ago!"

He'd been here for three hours? It sure didn't feel like that long. "I was right here, Mom," he answered. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Is it bad that I changed my mind about hating books?"

"No, of course not. You know, I used to be the exact same way."

"You were?" It seemed impossible that his mom had ever hated books.

And to that, his mom just smiled.