Sonia

“What a surprise!” Sonia greeted me as I walked through the library door on Friday morning. I had already met my hours for the week, so I bet she wasn’t expecting me to come in today.

“And look at you—wicked side braid.” She smiled at me and raised her eyebrows.

“I didn’t have anything else to do today, so . . .” I tried to say it so it wouldn’t sound as pathetic as it was. A thirteen-year-old girl on summer vacation with nothing better to do than volunteer extra hours at her public library? I had hit an all-time low.

“Good timing, then, because there’s lots to do in the children’s room today,” Sonia said. “We had day camp visitors, preschool age.”

“That’s cool,” I replied.

“Cool? Oh, Jamie, you have no idea.” She shook her head at me.

“It’s cool that they would bring them here, to a library, I mean. That’s a good field trip,” I explained.

“Yes, a great field trip. But I have never seen so many runny noses in my life. And it’s summer! That’s not supposed to happen in summertime, right?” She ducked under the desk and then popped back up with two containers of sani-wipes, one in each hand. “Pretty much every inch of the room needs a wipe-down.”

“Oh, it’s not so bad, Sonia.” Lenny appeared out of the back room, laughing and rolling an empty cart back to the circ desk. “All those germs make your immunity stronger.”

“I’ve worked here forever. My immunity is iron-plated,” Sonia bragged. “I still like my library clean.”

Lenny laughed again and took the containers from her hands. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I’d start with the puzzles,” Sonia added, “and the blocks table. I’ll do the touch screens myself with the special wipes.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Lenny bowed at her, then stopped short as he read the label on one of the containers she’d handed him. “Jeez, Sonia, you gave me the hard stuff. This’ll peel paint off the walls.”

“Then my professional advice is,” Sonia said, as she scrolled a new roll of receipt tape into the printer, “do not use them on the walls.”

“Very funny,” Lenny said, then headed toward the employee staircase. “I’m putting rubber gloves on before I reach into this vessel of toxic cleanser.”

“Disinfecting toxic cleanser!” Sonia said, a little too loud for a library.

“I’ll risk the chemical exposure,” Lenny said to Sonia as he disappeared downstairs, “but only for you.”

I raised my eyebrows at Sonia.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she warned, purposely not making eye contact with me. “Lenny’s a nice guy. He’s like that with everyone.”

“If you say so.” I smirked back.

“So Lenny’s dealing with the children’s toys”—Sonia ignored me—“which means we’ll put you to work here. You can help with returns. I’m going to scan in this pile”—she gestured to three tall stacks of books and DVDs on the counter to her left—“and then hand them to you to scan again. Every item should be double-checked before it gets shelved.”

“Okay,” I said, excited to finally get to use a circulation computer.

“Here’s the inventory check screen. Just run the bar code under here”—she demonstrated, and the scanner let out a high-pitched beep—“and then pile them on the cart behind you here.”

“Got it.”

“You have to look at the screen, though, to see each title register. Sometimes it beeps but it doesn’t scan, so you have to see it on the screen with your eyes.”

“Okay.”

“And take your time. You don’t have to go as fast as me.”

“Okay.”

“Better to be slow and accurate.”

“Okay.”

“I think I should buy you a special coffee mug that says ‘Okay’ on it,” Sonia teased me.

“Okay,” I teased her back.

And then the bell jingled and a man in a bright blue tie entered the library and walked straight up to Sonia.

“Good morning. How are you today?” he asked.

“Fine, thank you. How can I help you?” she replied, putting down the book she was holding and giving her full attention to him.

“I’m here to see Beverly Cooper. I’m Edward Trippley.”

“Oh.” Sonia looked skeptical. “I didn’t realize she had a meeting this morning.”

“Oh, she’s not expecting me. I just wanted to have a face-to-face.” He straightened his tie then and unbuttoned his suit jacket. “I started as mayor earlier this year, as you may know, and I’m here to talk about how to best serve our wonderful town of Foxfield.”

“Of course,” Sonia said, looking more doubtful still but putting on her best welcoming smile. “I’m Sonia, and this is our volunteer, Jamie. We both live here in town.” Sonia reached across the counter and shook Mayor Trippley’s hand.

He shook her hand back, and then shook mine as well. “Very nice to meet you, of course.” It felt like his glance lingered on me for an extra moment, like maybe he was trying to remember something he might have heard about a student “working” at the library. My palms started to itch, and I rubbed them against the sides of my shorts the way Beverly rubbed her hands against her corduroys.

“I’ll just phone Beverly, in her office, to let her know you’re here.”

“Don’t go to any trouble. I’ll just head on back myself. Just a friendly visit.” And with that he excused himself, quickly finding his way back to Beverly’s office, Sonia still holding the phone to her ear.

She dialed anyway. “Maybe she’ll pick up before he reaches the door,” she whispered to me. And then quietly, to herself, “She deserves a little warning.”

The phone rang and rang, and then we heard a door open and close. “He got to her first.” Sonia bit her lip in frustration and hung up the phone.

Lenny came out of the children’s room, his hands in bright yellow gloves. “Was that the new mayor?”

I nodded yes.

A thoughtful “hmm” came from Lenny as he stared at the closed door. Then he looked over to Sonia.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

“I think he’s getting the wrong idea, coming now when we’re empty. Most of the day we’re so busy with patrons,” she said, as if Lenny didn’t already know this. “And I think I’m not feeling the friendly in that friendly visit.”

Lenny thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s not jump to conclusions. You never know.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, completely baffled.

“Nothing, Jamie,” Lenny answered me before Sonia could. “So far, nothing’s going on.” And then his voice got louder as he declared, “It’s just another beautiful morning in the library.” He raised his long arms out to the sides, one yellow-sheathed hand still holding a canister of sani-wipes, and beamed a broad, goofy smile, turning in a circle like Moses on top of a mountain.

Sonia laughed and her shoulders relaxed. “What would we do without you, Lenny?”

And Lenny beamed even more.

An hour later Mayor Trippley walked out of Beverly’s office. He lifted his hand at me like he was waving from a parade float and walked briskly out of the library.

Beverly stepped out of her office a minute later. Her eyes were glazed and her cheeks were flushed. She looked smaller, like a balloon that had lost some of its air.

Lenny froze at the circ desk, his mouth open like he was about to say something but then changed his mind. Sonia emerged from the staff stairway at the exact moment that Beverly cleared her throat, brushed her hands down the sides of her pants, and then cleared her throat again, more forcefully this time.

She looked down at the floor and then back up. “We have a problem,” she said.

All I heard after that was the crack of Sonia’s coffee mug hitting the floor.

I cleaned up the spilled coffee while Lenny, Sonia, and Beverly all sat down in Beverly’s office. They closed the door, so I was alone, just me and a handful of patrons.

I straightened my posture behind the circ desk and tucked my hair behind my ears. I scanned the room and noticed some magazines left behind on a chair. I stacked them in order and returned them to their shelf, then pushed in a chair at a computer desk so it wouldn’t block the aisle.

When a man on a computer looked up at me, I smiled and nodded at him, the same way Beverly would.

A woman in a suit and heels strolled into the library with a pile of books.

“Are those returns? I can take them for you,” I offered.

“Thank you very much,” she said, and then strolled right back out.

An older man came down the staircase from the loft and made a beeline for me. “Excuse me, miss. Do you have travel books?”

“We do. Right this way.” I walked him to the travel section, in the 900s. I knew exactly where they were because I had spent a half hour shelf-reading that section the other day.

On my way back to the circ desk, I caught my reflection on a dark computer screen that had gone to sleep. At first I didn’t recognize myself, because the person in the reflection looked happy. The person in the reflection looked like someone who belonged exactly where they were.

A pang of guilt shot through me when I remembered how I’d felt just a few weeks ago: that it would be great if the library closed and I didn’t have to work here.

Suddenly, that was the absolute last thing I wanted.