Two

I gathered my things without a word and walked out of the classroom. That was when everything started to get weird.

I went to the library, which is in the oldest part of the school. I love this building, with its old stone walls, wooden moldings and stained-glass windows. It’s more than a hundred years old. If there were statues here, you’d think you were in a church.

There was a note stuck on the door of the library that said Back in 15 minutes.

I had nothing better to do, so I started looking at the old grad photos on the walls. I had been walking past these things for nearly five years and had never given them a second glance. I saw that the oldest class dated back to 1909. There were only boys here in those days. They had strange names like Hormidas, Tancred, Napoleon and Alphege. They must have been around my age when these photos were taken, but they already looked like adults. Girls first made an appearance in the 1960s, around the same time as color in the photos. Their haircuts were weird, but some of the girls were very pretty. It was hard to believe that most of them would be grandmothers now.

“What are you doing here, young man?”

The voice made me jump. I turned around and had to look down.

I’m the tallest player on the basketball team, and this man was tiny. I’d never seen him before. If I had, I’m sure I would have remembered. I didn’t think I’d ever met anyone as odd-looking as him.

“Mr. Robinson told me to spend the rest of the period in the library.”

“I see,” the man replied, sizing me up like a tailor guessing my measurements for a new suit. “Very well. You seem like an excellent specimen to me. It was about time he did his job and snared one. Follow me.”

Specimen? Snared? I had no idea what he was talking about, and he wasn’t leaving me any time to ask questions. He reached for the big ring of keys hanging from his belt and used one of them to open a door that led into the library.

I figured this must be some kind of staff entrance. I’d never noticed it before.

He waited for me to go in first, and then he locked the door behind him. I didn’t like the sound of the key turning. It made me feel trapped.

Luckily, though, the school library is in the old chapel, so it’s a big, open space. The man went and stood behind the counter. My instinct was to find a seat as far away from him as I could.

I picked a magazine from a rack and pretended to be interested in it while I snuck a few glances at the curious character across the room.

The man was so short, I could barely see the top of his bald head above the counter. When he stood behind the computer screen, he disappeared completely.

“My name is Leclerc. Victor Leclerc. If you’ve never seen me here before, that’s because I was off sick for…a long time. A very long time. I was a teacher here for many years, and then I became a librarian at the end of my career.”

Why did he feel like he had to explain himself? It wasn’t as if I’d asked him anything.

“What’s your name?”

“Matt.”

“Would you like to do a job for me, Matt? I need someone to help me do some purging in the library. There are stacks and stacks of old books in the basement, and it’s getting to be a fire hazard. It’s simply a matter of putting them in boxes. It’ll take you no more than two or three days. I thought you might spend a few Saturdays down there.”

The prospect of shutting myself into a basement to organize a bunch of dusty old books was not appealing. I guess he must have read my expression, because he sweetened the deal pretty quickly.

“I can pay you twenty dollars an hour. I know it’s not much, although…”

There might be some kids who don’t think twenty dollars per hour is a lot of money, but I’m not one of them. This wasn’t exactly a job for life, I figured. It was just a few Saturdays, after all.

“Why not?” I replied.