The Book Nook

14

 We were up on the second floor where the book rows stretched out from the banister surrounding the wide open skylighted area where you could peer down from above and watch people make their way through the aisles like mice in a maze.

The library felt different on the upper floor. The rows darkened as they led away from the middle and the books seemed to get older.

I neglected asking Alexandria where exactly the furthest corner of this place was because I resigned to the fact I'd know it when I saw it. She led me, no longer by the hand, but hastening through the rows like a stray runaway, intent on not being seen. Funny thing was Alexandria fit a perfect description of somebody I could envision living undetected in a library, roaming the aisles and remaining hidden until the doors locked at the end of the night after which she would emerge, having the whole place to herself.

I ended up being right about knowing it when I saw it. In the furthest reaches of one of the corners - I'm sure Alexandria had led me in circles first, just to disorient me - inset in the walls and spaced about six feet apart, there were four little alcoves cut into the walls, two in each wall before it intersected into what I had to assume was the furthest corner of the library just as Alexandria had said. They were small, just enough space for a skinny person to fit comfortably with a couple feet of head space left. The seats were cushioned in red and decorative pillows adorned the space. Along the inner walls of the little inset recesses were wooden shelves that were sparsely wallpapered with books of a seemingly random assortment.

Something about the entire thing seemed out of a child's dream.

Alexandria hopped inside one of the niches nearest where the walls met, curling her legs under her and fluffing the pillows beside her and then patting them.

"Come on inside," she smiled up at me.

I sat down at the edge and she frowned. "No, you have to get all the way inside."

I did as told and brought my legs in and folded them, sitting cross-legged as she did. It was an incredibly tight squeeze. Our knees pressed together tightly.

Alexandria scanned a forefinger along the spines of books above my head. I watched her, following her finger graze the spines of those books like she was putting a finger to their lips, telling them that now is not the time to speak.

"I can see why you come here," I said.

"Can you?"

"Yeah. It feels like hiding. I'd love to have a place like this, to just crawl into where nobody could find me, becoming entirely transparent in my own little world of books. It's like the Book Nook but entirely your own. Your own little Nook."

She pondered my answer while looking away to the books outside our hideout.

"Partly true, yeah. It's a good answer, I'll give you that."

"Thanks, I guess," I said.

I scanned the titles of the books around the one side of us and before I could even ask the question that I was about to, Alexandria was already answering it.

"They're our own picks. The librarians let us choose the books to put in here. So we put a few of our favorites into each." She pointed out a few. "See, there's Chronicles of Narnia, Life of Pi, some J.M. Barrie. Those are all mine."

"Huh," was all I said. A thought hit me at that moment. "You know, for all we've talked about books, I don't think I've ever asked what your favorite ones are."

"Yes, you did."

"Oh. I did?"

"Yeah, it was a long time back, maybe in your first week or two. While we were working."