Hours of Operation

 

When the library is closed, it’s like the book has been closed.  The story has stopped, and you can’t go any farther until they reopen.  All the characters now just stand there, waiting, no one is reading their lines, the evil one has stopped lurking for the moment.  He’s now just leaning there in the shadow, smoking a cigarette.  It isn’t fair.

 

Where is the hero?  Why can’t he get more funding for the library so they can stay open around the clock?  Am I expecting too much?  What if this were a medical story and the doctors suddenly had to stop the procedure?  The patient had to just lay there until Monday morning, when the library opened again.  “Sorry, you can’t eat yet, just lay still, we’ll let you know.”

 

Or worse yet, a rich member of the congregation was donating a new Wurlitzer to the church, and during the vital organ transplant everything had to come to a halt.  All we’d be able to do was pray it all worked out.  Many of the elders who were carrying the old organ out of the church would just have to stop.  “No, you can’t set it down.  Just wait.”  “Say, Larry’s turning purple.”

 

I think we shouldn’t have to read the books here, they should just let us take them home to read.

       “What?  When did all that happen?”

 

       “OK then.  Never mind.”