Overdue

Note from 𝓽𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓽: Ok, so this story is just an idea that came to me randomly, although it is very short (maybe too short to be qualified even) I hope you enjoy it. Despite my efforts, I could not really think of any ways to make this longer without writing something the length of a novel. This is supposed to be corny and strange, so please no comments about my weird sense of humor :) Let me know if you find any errors, or if you have ideas for how this could end that are different from mine. And since this week’s submissions are a love letter to libraries, I am writing this while in a library. Have fun reading :)

Christine bolted up in her bed, suddenly awake, the afternoon sun streaming in through the window by her bed blinding her. She looked around, her head swinging wildly and her eyes wide with fear, sweeping a large arc around her bedroom. They darted back and forth, examining everything in the room; the coats hanging on the coat rack at the foot of her bed, the rug on the floor, the walking stick leaning on the wall next to the open window, the… wait, something isn’t right. She repeated the list to herself in her head. The walking stick leaning on the... THE WALKING STICK! She jumped out of bed, shoving her feet into slippers and throwing on her coat. Christine moved over to the half-open window, its curtains fluttering peacefully in the breeze. I’m sure I closed that last night she said to herself. Maybe I’ll just go back to bed… but no, her eyes snapped back to the walking stick by the window and the bag on the coat rack; Christa shook her head, grabbing the bag and walking out the door. 

Christa’s heavy breaths made miniature clouds in the morning air as she ran across the patio, her slipper feet slipping and sliding all the way. She shook off her slippers and jumped into her boots, dashing across the front lawn to the street. She never stopped running, only occasionally taking a few precious seconds to readjust the bag slung over her shoulder before sprinting off again. Christa felt a bolt of fear as she turned around to see the elderly lady with her walking stick, yes the very same walking stick that was in her bedroom this morning, hobbling down the sidewalk behind her. The old woman tripped, and something in Christa wanted to feel bad for her, but she had made that mistake before; she kept running. 

I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. She thought. Returning library books had always slipped her mind, and since she became a member of the town library, things hadn’t become any easier. As Christa veered onto a side street, she saw something that even surprised her, and that was saying something. Just about fifteen feet away from her, she saw a dismembered limb. It could have been anything, an arm, a leg, it was too torn apart to tell. But the most noticeable thing about the severed… arm? Was that it was holding a book, Anne of Green Gables. Christa gingerly took the book from what she assumed was an arm and flipped through the blood-stained pages to the back. There it was, the recept, and a blank slip with one word on it, OVERDUE. A few more feet from the arm, there was another book, lying open in the grass. Christa checked that one too: OVERDUE. She looked down the street, and her mouth fell open. There were hundreds of books on the street, nonfiction, fiction, fantasy, dystopian; Christa ran from one book to another, flipping to the back. OVERDUE, OVERDUE, OVERDUE. And it just kept going! OVERDUE, OVERDUE, OVERDUE, OVERDUE... It was like a rogue library cart had puked all its overdue books onto the street at once. She slowly backed away, this was all too much.

Leaving the arm on the street and tucking the book into her bag, Christa turned onto a tree-lined street. Sensing tension in the air, she lifted her eyes off the ground and saw the ferocious-looking teenagers standing in a line in front of her. They were forming a human wall, one that she had no hope of getting past. “Hand it over!” an auburn-haired girl, who Christa assumed was the leader, stepped forward. “You know what will happen if you don’t”. She shivered at the threat as she clutched the bag tighter; but she pressed on, walking straight towards the line of teens. “Stop!” Christa stopped. “Come any closer and we’ll shoot” the girl waved her hand and one by one the library interns drew their barcode readers. C’mon Christa, take a step forward Step. The red-haired girl signed her hand and the interns bent into position. Step. it’s almost time Step. They drew their scanner guns, fingers on the trigger, and… DING DONG DING DONG… DING DONG DING DONG… one, two, three, Christa counted the dings four, five, six, she looked at her watch and shook her head as the ringing subsided. Should be right about… “Now” she smiled wickedly. Suddenly, the interns lowered their ‘guns’ and whipped out their phones. “Where are you going?!?” the auburn-haired girl screamed. “My shift’s over boss. Gotta get going, I’ve got a gig tonight” A blonde girl responded. “What are you doing?! Come back!” the auburn-haired girl continued to scream at the receding figures as she dropped to her knees; features shifting and rearranging until… “Mrs. Begsby?” Christa exclaimed “SHHHHH!” the old women hissed, picking up her walking stick and scuttling away, throwing a single piece of paper behind her as she went. Christa picked it up. There was one word stamped on it, in red ink… OVERDUE.  

She’s never gonna let me off the hook, is she? She sighed, swiping up the slip and tucking it into the overdue library book as she walked away silently. 

Thanks for reading!