Two girls stare at a computer screen expectantly. "Why isn't it loading?" "I don't know, because the library's wifi is slow?"
As they talk in whispers, another girl walks up behind them. She taps them on the shoulders. Both girls turn around, startled. "What do you want?"
The strange girl speaks in a quiet voice. "You can't get on the Internet. These computers are only for reserving books on the catalog. Go over by the nonfiction section."
The other girls nod, closing the page and walking over to a computer by the Dewey Decimal chart on a bookshelf.
One glances back, and sees the girl walk over to a bookshelf. She leans against it, and stares at the other girl until she looks away. Looking back up, the first girl sees the other has disappeared.
An old woman with grey hair is scanning a shelf. She glances uncertainly down at the book in her hand, and adjusts her spectacles.
The same girl who helped out the girls earlier emerges from another row. "Hello," she says to the woman. "Are you wondering where to shelf that? It goes right there." The girl points to a space between a book on geodes and a classified list of gemstones.
The woman nods to the girl, and shelves the book. Just as quickly as she appeared, the girl disappeared into another aisle.
A young boy named Peter runs to the Reserved Books section and looks for a comic book he'd reserved earlier. He wilts slightly when he doesn't see it under P.
The girl emerges from one of the shelves and walks over to the boy. "What are you looking for?" The little boy looks at her suspiciously, and says "My name's Peter. I'm trying to find my Spiderman book, but it's not here." He gestures to the P section.
The girl laughs slightly, and smiles. "Oh, what's your last name? The books you reserve are always under your last name." The boy seemed to grasp the concept and said "My full name is Peter Stacki!" He turns around and looks through a few of the S books before finding his comic.
"Thanks mystery girl!" Peter waves and runs off to the Children's Section, where his father was waiting for him. The girl smiles and waves goodbye to the boy, and walks over to the Teen Fiction section.
She melts into the books.
Literally.
Valerie spotted Hikaru running towards Say Something. "Hey! Hikaru!"
Hikaru turned around, and waved to Valerie. "Hi!" Valerie strode over to Hikaru, and asked "Have you seen Nick lately?" Hikaru shook her head. "Nah. He might be around, but yeah..."
Valerie nodded. "Ok, I'll be with Duce if you need me."
Hikaru pretended to salute, and then ran off into the white fog.
Hikaru skidded to a stop. This wasn't Say Something. She must've gone the wrong direction. She turned around, and strode back toward Hate List.
Then, of course, she was picked up.
Hikaru stumbled, and fell over. It felt a little bit like an earthquake, except, you know, being inside a book that's being picked up.
She looked up at the milky ceiling, and saw a grey-haired girl with a giant black coat holding the book. The girl flipped the book over to read the backside, causing Hikaru to roll over.
"Damnit..." Hikaru stood up uncertainly, and tried to walk. Unfortunately, she was still dizzy, and when the book flipped again, she landed hard on her elbows. "That's gonna leave a mark."
"What book is this, anyhow?" Hikaru asked the empty air. Almost as if answering her question, the grey-haired girl murmured "Counting by 7s... As long as it doesn't have any shrimp, I'm good."
The girl put the book under her arm, and walked to the self-checkout. She scanned the book, and walked out of the library.
Hikaru sighed and sat up. "Daaaammnnnniittttttt..." she sighed, dragging it out.
The girl got on her bike, placing the book (and Hikaru, though she didn't know it) into a pouch on the front. She biked away from the library, Hikaru bouncing in the front pocket.
Hikaru was woken from her nap by the sound of a garage. The girl was putting her bike away. She picked up the book and Hikaru, and walked inside, hitting the "close" button on her way out.
The girl walked into a relatively small basement, calling out "I'm home!" No one answered. "Dad?" She put the book under her arm and climbed the stairs. Nobody was in the kitchen, and the stove was off.3
"Mom? Marin?" The grey-haired girl put the book down on a table and walked into some part of the house.
Hikaru tried to see if there was a bookshelf anywhere, but either there wasn't one or it wasn't in her (the book's) vision.
"Is it Wednesday and I forgot?" The girl looked outside the window, trying to see if the car was in the driveway. It was. "Are they on a walk? No, they would leave a note..."
Hikaru finally noticed the girl's plight and started to listen. The girl started pacing, under her breath listing what could've happened.
She called out again. "Dad? Mom? Marin?"
Nobody answered.
She sighed, and flopped down on the couch. "Ouch!" The girl sat up and rubbed her back.
She ran her hands down her face, and walked over to the dining room table. "Well then..."
The girl grabbed the book, and took her coat off. Hikaru couldn't see, but it looked like the girl was arching her back.
"Well then, let's go to... hmm, maybe the McKinneys' roof?" The girl asked herself. "Why not? They do have that plum tree." Seeming to have made up her mind, the girl stepped outside, locking the door.
Hikaru watched interestedly from her book as the girl stretched her back again. She to-
What the hell had Hikaru just seen.
The girl literally flew into the air.
From the up-and-down motion, Hikaru guessed the girl had wings. And was using them to fly.
The girl waved at her neighbors, who waved back like it was totally normal to have a winged girl flying over their gardens. She eventually landed on a brown tiled roof, sitting down and grabbing the book.
Hikaru tumbled around, but then looked up and saw the girl had a pair of grey wings behind her. "You're a goddamn angel..."
The girl opened the book, and began reading. Hikaru sighed and leaned back against a wall, and slowly fell asleep.