The Invitee

Darryl entered the large waiting room. All marble floors and elegant decadence strewn around a brightly lit space. On the other side of the room, there were two large double doors adorned with pearl knobs. He took a seat and reached for his phone. It was missing. Damn it, he left it in his coat at the check-in counter downstairs. Darryl stood to go back for it, but when he turned around, a large hooded figure stood before him.

“Hi, welcome to the library,” the man in the hood said.

“You startled me,” Darryl said, clutching his chest.

“Ah, sorry about that. People tell me I do that a lot,” the man in the hood said.

“I received your invitation just this morning. I came as soon as I saw it.” Darryl said.

“Everyone does."

“The cloak, hood and cloth mask are for your protection, right? Keep the location and people a secret to the outside?” Darryl asked.

“You are quite clever. I see why we chose you,” the hooded figure said.

Darryl laughed. “I understand. So, what do I call you?”

“Call me the librarian,” the librarian said with a slight bow.

Darryl laughed again. “Okay, the librarian it is.”

“What were you expecting, a large orangutan to show you around?”

Darryl smirked. “Good reference. Tell me, what must I do to be granted a library card so that I can check out books?”

The librarian walked toward the large double door. “You have already done it over the course of your entire life. We saw your quest for knowledge, your love, and understanding of books. The library has granted you and a select few access.”

“I see, and what sort of books can I find in this library?” Darryl asked.

“All of them.”

“All the books in print, or all of the books published since the 1960s? Because all of them is impossible.”

“This library is a collection donated by many people over many centuries. If there is a book that you can’t find in the library, it is only because it has not yet been written.” The librarian explained.

The librarian opened the door and stepped inside, gesturing to Darryl to follow. The door sealed behind with a hiss. Darryl surveyed the room. Massive rows of books with floor after floor and row after row of reading material. It was like a massive mall stocked with only books. Darryl exhaled “Damn.”

“This is just the entrance.” The librarian said. “There is much more on the floors beneath this building.”

“Okay, I see now. This is just amazing. How do I navigate all of this?” Darryl asked.

“Well, we use a system devised by ancient sages. A way in which to navigate all knowledge is said to be nothing short of wizardry. I speak of course of the Dewey Decimal system!” The librarian said, laughing at his own joke.

“Okay, very funny.”

“Bathrooms, kitchens, and resting area are on the floor just below us. Feel free to use them and please return all books to the place in which you got them.”

“Yeah, easy enough. I can’t wait to get started.”

“Well, then you may begin,” the librarian said. Darryl grinned from ear to ear. He set out to the aisles, not even looking at the books. He knew he was going to start with philosophy. So much to be learned by people who think about thinking. He found a spiral staircase and began his descent. The librarian was not joking; there were multiple floors of books, each floor larger than the one before. He stopped, finding his floor on the placard. Philosophy. He sat out in the first row, many authors he had never heard of before. He headed to the ‘A’ section. The shelves were bursting with works from Aristotle.

“Impossible” Darryl said to himself. He grabbed the first book. Someone had translated it into English. Although Darryl could speak multiple languages himself, including a few versions of Greek. Here it stood a book by Aristotle that was lost. Now he held it in his hands, and he found it had been translated into English. “Impossible” he said again. He didn’t even search for a chair. Darryl sat right down on the hard floor and began reading.

Hours passed. He found more works than he knew existed. Which was more than he could even dream of. Exhaustion set in, and Darryl headed up to the kitchen for a bite to eat. He found one of his guilty pleasures in a freezer. A bag of pizza rolls. He threw a plateful in the air fryer and sat with a Neil Gaiman book he had grabbed on the way up. Something he had never seen before. American Gods II. This version had hand-written notes from the author. The book gave the impression that it wasn’t finished. Did Neil Gaiman donate an unfinished book to the collection? Strange, but Darryl could see a collector wanting to have this. He had to admit, eating pizza rolls and reading unpublished sequels to books that he loved was his personal heaven. After his meal, Darryl found a couch to rest on and fell asleep reading.

He awoke after an unknown amount of time and continued his quest for philosophies. After some time, Darryl got curious and explored the library. He went down more levels and found a room just for reading and note taking. Papers and pens strewn about the desk. Other people had written notes here. Most with lists of books to read and some with notes questioning the library.

“I walked downstairs for what felt like days. Still, I did not reach the bottom.” Darryl read aloud from an etching carved into a desk. Darryl pondered this person must not have an excellent sense of time. Well, how long had Darryl been in the library? Hours can feel like days when you are exhausted. Still, he was curious to see for himself how big the library was. He went back up and grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen and went back down. Darryl descended past the philosophy section and then past the desks. He kept going, but found the trip to be boring. He saw the placard for the next floor to be labeled LitRPG. “What” Daryl said. Books about people living in video game worlds? Why would any collector pay to have these books in a collection? You can find them all online and most for free. A guilty pleasure of Darryl’s was to read LitRPG late into the night on his work computer. He stopped and grabbed a book for the trip.

Reading while walking downstairs was a chore in itself. After a couple of missteps, he found a rhythm to his walking and reading. This was quite the adventure, he thought to himself. Both the book and the walk downstairs were the adventure. Reading about a guy named Jake building a magical market and getting his steps in at the same time. This was great.

Darryl reached for a sip of water and realized the bottle was empty. He thought about it and noticed he had been walking all day and had now built up quite a hunger. Panic set in as Darryl thought about the situation he was in. He had been walking downstairs away from food. Now he was exhausted, hungry, and still needed to walk back up the stairs. Down was difficult, back up would be nearly impossible. Darryl closed the book and turned around, heading back up. After climbing up a single flight of stairs, he was already winded. He looked up and read the placard LitRPG again. How could that be? He walked for hours away from that floor. Darryl put the book he took back and tried something out. He decided he wanted to read the books of Homer. “The Iliad,” he said and begun walking up the stairs. He checked out the placard. It read Homer. Darryl walked over to the shelf and a few rows of books, all written by Homer. “Impossible” He said once more.

Darryl ran to the stairs and decided on the top floor. “Top floor,” he said. He went up one level and appeared at the top floor. The librarian, still standing at the desk, waved at him.

“Are you the same librarian from the other day?”

“I am. You’re back quickly. Done already?”

“There are only two books written based on Homer’s works. The rest were stories spread by word of mouth and were never published. Explain how you have them.” Darryl demanded.

“Someone wrote them down at some point. That’s why they are here.” The librarian explained.

“So, this place is magic? The stairs can teleport you if you say where you want to go? The books just appear as long as it is written? That’s insane.”

“Not magic, just not confined by the restrictions of physical space.” The librarian pointed out.

“So, quantum mechanics? That explains the endless stairwell, I guess, but it doesn't explain how you get the books here and translate them. Can you explain that?” Darryl asked.

“How to explain this? Hmmm. How did you get your invite to come here?” The librarian asked.

“Uh, I got a text. I was driving to an early morning lecture and thought I saw a text from my wife. It turned out to be a text inviting me to the library.”

“Texting while driving is very dangerous. Many people have unfortunate accidents from such reckless activities.” The librarian explained.

Darryl’s jaw dropped. “I umm. I need a minute” He walked back downstairs and grabbed The Winds of Winter by George R. R. Martin. He went up to the kitchen, put in some pizza rolls, sat on the couch, and read. He leaned back and took a bite, enjoying his time with the book. “This is heaven.” He said.