Running like a Woman with Her Hair on Fire

Tough Nuts

58 tough nuts You forget how quiet Quiet is. You look around at the stacks of books, on metal shelves—not like the old libraries with their dark impenetrable woods, light coming through small high windows, some books placed too high for you to reach Libraries were dark, lamps (amber light) always lit, librarians’ glasses reflecting your own timidity: “Yes, please, Ma’am, all five,” as you handed her your card. “I’ll read them all in one day, too.” Librarians never believed that. Tough nuts those women. This new branch is all metal and glass and fluorescent lighting.The librarian wears contact lenses and smiles— believes what the children tell him. You forgot that Quiet and old wood go together and it is a fact that aluminum-framed windows admit no ghosts. This new library says, Speak up! I can’t hear you if you whisper.It says, Look around! No unlit corners here. No haunted closets. No hands-off ladders for librarians only.No smell of old paper.No bookbinder tape. It says Computers.Cell phones.Pagers. Stay tuned.They’ll all go off at once if you wait long enough. 59 Still, you are here on opening day:Three Best Sellers, twoTrue Crime, two Poetry, one Collected Letters. you offer your card. “Three weeks,” says the librarian. “I’ll have them read in 5 days,” you say proudly. He glances up. He doesn’t believe you. Outside, you set down your book bag. and do a victory dance. Ha! Ha! ...