It's Not My Book

It was just a regular day of me waking up taking a shower, quickly scarfing down a piece of toast so my stomach won’t be too loud whilst I’m in the library! You see, when you don’t have a life you cherish those simple things a little more. I’m not saying that if you go to the library you’re automatically pegged as someone who doesn’t have a life, I’m just saying for me, that is exactly the case. I’m an introvert to the highest degree! If there were an award show yearly I’m sure I would be nominated for “Person most likely to never leave the house ever again”. The sad part is I wouldn’t even bother showing up to the award show if I won because that would be defeating the whole purpose for the award right? Don’t get me wrong, I like going out every blue moon with a close friend or two to catch a movie or try out a new restaurant every now and then but I can certainly say that it’s more then than ever now. Most of my friends have totally given up on me because I always have a laundry list of things that I need to do before I even begin to think about going out like returning a few library books. 

I’m pretty lucky to live in an area that has a library pretty close by. I usually just walk there if I don’t have to run a few more errands afterwards which warrants me throwing on a helmet and saddling up on my bicycle. Today wasn’t that day. Just the library and back was the only thing on the agenda. On the walk there I like to listen to my favorite playlist. That can be anything from classical to hip hop. Sometimes I change the playlist if I’m in a hurry or if I’m in no hurry at all. If I’m in a hurry I like to put on a little trip-hop. If the music is upbeat I tend to put a little pep in my step. If I’m not in a hurry a good string quartet usually is a great soundtrack for slow strides and a little extra sunlight on the face. I don’t like to go down the rabbit hole too far when I’m out walking and listening to music. One day I was down said rabbit hole and I nearly got hit by a car. I won’t even tell you about the time I almost fell into a man hole. That symphony was amazing and took me away like those old bath soap commercials that use to say, ‘take me away!”. 

I like to escape in a good book from time to time as well. It’s easy when it’s just you and your plants at home. Yes, I know! Can I be a little bit more introverted? I’m sure if it was possible I would be. I just finished reading a book about a woman who was lost in space for years with no hope of returning to earth. She was on a solo mission to see if it was possible to exist in outer space and be able to maintain all alone. She was suppose to be out there for 2 years but something went wrong and she lost contact with earth who thought she was dead. Sounds like my kind of a mission! By myself in space?! YES PLEASE! Where do I enlist? My library encounters are pretty much the same every time. Go in, find a computer to see which aisle my book is on then go get it! I always check the website of the library before I go just in case I need to request something they may not have. Luckily they had everything I wanted. I’ve been thinking about building a DIY bookshelf so I wanted to pick something up along those lines too. Time to check out! There was a new librarian at the front desk. I’ve been coming to this library for 5 years and it’s always been the same woman, Louise. I don’t want to say she is the stereotypical librarian that you see in movies but she really was.

An older lady with her hair pinned back into a bun with red cat-eye glasses with the tiny little chain that stays securely around your neck if for some reason they slip off your nose. She looked like she would smell of freshly baked cookies and maybe a hint of moth balls because of the lovingly worn cardigan that she had on. Alas, no Louise! It really didn’t matter as long as the person that was available was capable of letting me check out my books. It wasn’t strange at all that the woman that was taking care of me never made eye contact with me at all. I mean, I’m the type of person that actually appreciates less dialog with someone if at all possible. I don’t have to go out of my way to make small talk while you do your job? PERFECTION. While I was being ignored and taken care of I was opening my backpack and a few pens slid out onto the floor. I sat the back pack down on the front desk and kneeled down to pick them up and as I stood up the mysterious new librarian was now standing making full eye contact with me. She had a crooked smile on her face and said in a gruff voice, I hope your visit was exceptional. I take my books and completely weirded out a tiny bit quickly stuff them into my backpack and about face right out of there.

On my way back home I couldn’t shake her facial expression. I mean, how can someone go from totally ignoring you to giving you all the attention in the world. Unwarranted attention might I add! I thought to myself that I needed a perfect soundtrack to erase her crooked smile out of my brain. 90’s hip hop to the rescue! It also promotes a faster stride which was 100% okay with me to get me as far away from that librarian as humanly possible. It’s not like I didn’t have plenty of things to do when I got home. I needed to put that DIY book to use. I already had all the materials I needed to get going on the shelf but first I should get myself a glass of water because all that fast walking left me parched. OKAY! Ready, steady GO! First things first, let’s get that book out of my backpack. I reached in and pulled out the new sci-fi book I’d been researching online then the DIY book. As I was about to put the backpack down It felt heavy like there was another book inside. That was strange because I specifically remember checking out two books only but there inside of my backpack was a third book. 

Wait a second, did I leave a book inside that I meant to return and just didn’t return it? No. That’s not a thing I do. Not only am I an awesome introvert you can also sprinkle a dash of OCD on my category of life. I’m not one for letting books be late for returning. Now it’s time to get to the bottom of this. I pulled the book out and I had never seen this book before. It was a small black leather bound book. The edges of the pages were gold. If it were bigger you would think it was a bible. Maybe it was an address book or a birthday book. You know those books that people write friends and family members birthdays in so they can end up forgetting them anyways. It could be a fancy journal or something someone uses to jot down numbers from cute people that you might run into on the street. I know that’s completely far fetched but anyway you look at it, it wasn’t my book. I felt bad just a little opening it but how was I to figure out who it belonged to if I didn’t open it and see. I really needed to get to the bottom of this mystery. Where on earth did this book come from!

One thing for certain is I didn’t put it in my backpack and it wasn’t in there before my trip to the library. Wait, when I bent down to pick up my pens that fell out of my backpack I sat it on the counter and it was opened. The new creepy librarian had plenty of time to slide something in there. This was a huge presumption but what else could it be. It magically appeared in my backpack. That’s far less likely to be the situation than Madam Weirdo touching my stuff putting this book inside. Opening the book to the first page didn’t help me come to a decent conclusion of its origins. The title just said, The Property of Life. Great, more confusion. I quickly flipped through to pages to get a better understand of what was inside. I noticed that there were locations and names of people and ages and time and dates. Further into the book the names changed to a specific occupation. 

Fort Worth Police Department - Tarrant County - 3/12/92

Officer Ted Miller / Jeffrey Jones - 32

Miami Police Department - Dade County - 6/3/96

Officer Mark Abbott / Curtis Wilson - 22

New York Police Department - 1st Precinct - 7/4/10

Officer Luca Russo / Duane Green - 26

Seattle Police Department - West Precinct - 9/13/18

Officer Damian Zielinski / Alison Wilson - 19

Wait, what was I reading? Names of officers and with the names of random people and their ages. I mean it could just be police officers and their best friends. This couldn’t be as dark as my mind was trying to make me go. I don’t like it when my mind takes me to the deepest darkest areas of what could happen. Just thinking it sends chills down my spin. Is this a book with a list of police officers that have murdered innocent citizens and if it was what is it doing in my backpack! The list was very long and that in itself was extremely unsettling. I shuffled through the pages to see if there was an end and came to the last submission. 

Oakland Police Department - 5/1/2021

Officer William Hobbs / Joseph Price - 44

I shot straight up from the couch and gasped extremely loud. This can’t be real. If I was right which I really hoped I wasn’t this is an incident that was going to happen today. It might be happening right now! I took off in a mad dash for my laptop so I can do a little research. Of course my computer wasn’t charged which meant I would have to wait a little while for it to have enough juice to power on. It normally takes 15 minutes to charge when it’s completely dead. It seemed like the longest 15 minutes of my life. I need to distract myself. I think I have a hard cider in the fridge that I could gulp down to ease my nerves a little bit. That’s what I’ll do. Just as I was on the final gulp I heard my computer power up and I took off running towards it. 

Google search engine has never let me down before, I know that it’s up to the task! Okay, local news stations for Oakland California. FOUND ONE! It was the run of the mill channel 4 you can trust me type of news station. I mean, I wasn’t familiar with anything because I don’t live there and don’t follow the stations so I’m placing my trust in what looks to be legit journalism. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do! Scroll, local family opens a plot of land where local people can come and grow their own fresh vegetables. Scroll, a segment of news asking people to come adopt a pet because the facility is running on overtime trying to find homes for a few cats and dogs. Scroll, Breaking News! I held my breath. Local man shot and killed in a traffic stop. Their name will not be disclosed until their family has been contacted. There was no doubt in my mind that his name was Joseph Price and he was shot by Officer William Hobbs. I may be jumping to a few conclusions so I’m going to wait to see if what I thought was true. We should know names by tomorrow. I’ll just wake up bright and early and see what the persons name was. I’m sure I will be getting absolutely no sleep tonight so I’ll just wait it out. 

Well, I thought I wouldn’t get any sleep but I fell asleep on the couch in an awkward position that left me with a stiff neck. The sunlight on my face woke me and I had a smile on my face. I happen to really love sunshine on my face. That smile quickly washed away with the thought of Joseph Price not being able to enjoy the sunshine on his face. I grabbed my laptop and refreshed the browser and there the headlines read, Joseph Price was shot during a routine traffic stop yesterday. The police officer has been put on paid leave while an investigation of the events continue. Maybe it will be a different officer. Maybe it’s not William Hobbs and in the very back of my mind I was begging for it not to be the case but all the begging in the world couldn’t change the fact that it was indeed Officer William Hobbs. I have to get ride of this book. I can’t take this kind of information. What was I going to do? Wait for another situation to appear and try to go help out the innocent victim and be killed myself or arrested for interfering with a police officer. NO THANK YOU. This is not my book and it certainly is not my problem! I’m going to take it back to the library and tell them it must have been some sort of accident of it ending up in my backpack. 

After quickly getting dressed not even getting myself a piece of toast or anything I hit the door with my backpack. I had my headphones on but I was so out of sorts that I didn’t turn on any music. My main focus was getting that book back to the library and out of my site. I was legit nervous having it in my possession. I arrived to library before I knew it and quickly opened the door. A familiar face was at the counter today, Louise was back at the helm. She flashed me a smile as I begin to flood her with information that I thought she should know. Mainly, that this wasn’t my book and it showed up in my backpack when I got home and I didn’t really understand what was in it. She looked at the book and said, I’ve never seen this and it doesn’t have numbers inside that tell me what shelf to return it to. I thought to myself, well there’s billions of books that I’m sure you’ve never seen before Louise. Either way it goes I’m not taking this book back. I told her well, then consider it a donation because I don’t want it. I also told her that maybe the woman that was here yesterday might have slipped it into my backpack on accident. She looked at me strangely and said, the library was closed yesterday. I was officially freaked out. Sure Louise! I didn’t want to blame it on age but she was clearly not in her right mind. Done with everything that was happening I smiled at her and said, you have a good day Louise. I put my headphones on and clicked the noise cancellation mode and turned it up as high as it could go and pushed play on Superstitious. Not being able to hear a thing I never heard her calling my name. I never heard her say, HEY! Your name is on the page in the back of this book with todays date on it! Are you sure this isn’t your book?