A Night at the Library of Congress

“I don’t know why I have to read this stupid book!” Thomas slammed the old, green book shut and winced his face in boredom. 

Ms. Pinkett eyed Thomas attentively. She was probably annoyed with his statement but showed little concern. She gently held her index finger up to her lips and hushed him from her desk.

Thomas crossed his arms and sighed loudly. “I didn’t even want to be here!” His puffed in a big gulp of stuffy, musty air and rolled his eyes at Ms. Pinkett. 

To this, Ms. Pinkett smiled calmly and made her way over to Thomas. “Some children are here to read, and you’re being very rude, Thomas!”

“Hey, how do you know my name?” 

“I’ve known Rob, your foster father since he was a child like you!”

The sentence rolled off of him and he took it as enough to open up to her. “I don’t want to be here! I hate reading!”

“Surely, there is something you’d like to read! How about ‘Joan of Arc’ or Moby Dick?” Classic tales of…

“No, my dad said I have to read this one!” He held the book up to Ms. Pinkett, and she gently took the book from his hands.

“Ah, To Kill a Mockingbird…” She opened the book to the middle and touched the pages as if they contained magic in them. “It is a great book, but… I don’t think you’d like this one.” 

Thomas’s interest was piqued. 

“Why not,” he asked, defiantly. 

“Well, because this is a really good book, but you have to really pay attention to every single word, even if there is a lot of profanity in it!”

“Profanity? Like curse words?” He licked his thumb and started flipping through the pages to find one. “No, my foster parents would never be okay with that, I’m only 13!”

Ms. Pinkett placed her hand on top of Thomas’ and patted it for a second. “Trust me, they’re there among other sensitive things.” 

“I’m sure they only want me to read it because I called our neighbor the ‘N’ word.”

“The ‘N’ word? That sounds pretty terrible.”

“I didn’t mean it.” His eyes dropped and he looked down at his shoes in embarrassment that the librarian was being so calm and nice to him when she had every right to be just as mad as his foster parents. “My last foster parents would call one of us that every time we did something wrong, and the neighbor started it, he called me a bastard for throwing a ball at his car. I didn’t mean to hit his car, it was an accident, and then I got so upset the word just fell out of my mouth.”

She got quiet for a second, as if deep in thought. “Hmmm!” she struggled with herself for a bit, she sighed and looked away, and sighed again. 

“What’s wrong,” Thomas asked?

“Well, I really want to show you something, but I don’t know if you’re ready for it, plus, we are about to close for the night.” 

“I’m ready.” Thomas began to dance around in his body without moving his feet. 

There is a special reading room here at the Library of Congress that few people know about. Can I show you this special room?

“Well, my parents told me I was only allowed to talk to you, the librarian, that must mean if it’s okay with you, it’s okay with me. 

“Very well then.” Ms. Pinkett began to walk toward a huge brown door. Her black heels gracefully clunked against the floor as if she was waltzing. Her hips swayed from side to side as she walked both quietly, but distractingly at the same time. She swiped her keycard and the long hallway suddenly opened up a world of possibilities to Thomas. He had never seen this area of the library before and he had been there at least 3 times since he moved in with his new foster parents. 

They walked and walked; they passed and passed door after door. Thomas stopped counting after 17 and now he began to drag his feet in boredom. “Are we there yet?”

“No, Thomas. This special room is for special people. You do have to put some work into it otherwise it wouldn’t feel special.”

“Fine,” he sighed. 

He walked beside her and tried to guess in his head which door would be the door, but he was wrong every single time.  When they reached the end of the very long corridor, Ms. Pinkett stopped and faced Thomas. 

“You have to make a choice, Thomas. The door on your left is if you really believe you said the “N” word by accident. The door on your right, is if you knew what you were saying but decided to say it anyway because it felt good to hurt someone else.”

Thomas pouted his lips and crossed his arms. “So, you tricked me!”

“No Thomas. No trick, which ever door you choose, will lead you to a different room.”

“Fine, I said it by accident.” He touched the handle to the door on the left side and pushed it open. It was dark, and it creaked loudly as he pushed himself through the door.

He could see Ms. Pinkett standing at the end of the corridor and he flayed his arms around. “How’d you do that?”

He waited for a second as he thought about what happened. He must have fallen asleep and this was all just a dream. He turned around to go back through the door that he came through, but it was locked. He went to the next door which was also locked. He did this for the next 10 doors before he gave up and ran toward Ms. Pinkett. He didn’t like this dream anymore. He wanted to wake up. 

When he finally reached Ms. Pinkett, he scolded her. “Why did you make me go through that door?”

“Me? I didn’t make you do anything. I was afraid this would happen. Are you ready to make the right choice?”

He looked at Ms. Pinkett, “but, I didn’t mean to!”

Ms. Pinkett gave Thomas a look of disappointment and waited for Thomas to make the correct choice. Thomas put his hand on the left door again. 

“Thomas, the left means you didn’t mean to really say what you said.”

He left his hand on the knob and stood there thinking for a bit. He sighed and hung his head lowly. He let his hand fall to his side, and while still staring at the floor, he made his way to the other side. “I’m really sorry I said the ‘N’ word, Ms. Pinkett. He pushed the door open and closed it behind him. The room was dark, and Thomas turned around to leave the way he came in. The door was locked. He turned around and slunk into the ground with his back to the door. 

“Hello?” The booming sound of a man’s voice made Thomas’ head snap up. There in front of him was a tall, handsome, man with thick black glasses. “What are you doing on the floor, son?” He reached his sturdy hand down to help Thomas up. 

“Who are you?” Thomas asked curiously.

“Where are my manners? My name is Atticus.”

“Atticus?” Thomas repeated.

“Finch. Atticus Finch.” He pointed to the small table behind them. “Do you wanna have a seat so we can discuss the elements of your case?”

“My case?” Thomas suddenly felt confused.

“Yes. I do like to collect as much information as I can before I decide whether to defend you or not, and I don’t have a lot of time, but I’m sure I want to start working on your defense straight away!”

“Defend me against what?”

“Thomas, I am a very busy man. Do you want my help or not?” He sat down and began to scribble notes into his legal pad.

Thomas looked around the room and sat down at the small reading table. “I don’t understand what is happening!”

“Look, you need a good defense if you want to get out of this in one piece. I have a little girl around your age, Scout is her name. It just seems like the right thing to do, son.”

Thomas sat and studied the man intently. 

“I just want to go home.”

“That’s all I want, too. I want you to go home and live a happy life, but I can’t do that if you don’t trust me.” He stopped scribbling notes and looked up at Thomas. “How about I tell you about a very special case involving a man named Tom Robinson?

Thomas settled in and hung off every word.  He listened to the entire story straight from Atticus Finch. Hours went by, but it felt like minutes to Thomas. When the story was just about over, there was a knock at the door. Ms. Pinkett came in and said hello to Atticus before telling Thomas the library was getting ready to open for the day. 

Thomas was still completely mesmerized by Atticus and they said their goodbyes. Before leaving, Atticus handed Thomas a first edition book of ‘The Grey Ghost” and tells Thomas to read it. He takes the book and walks out with Ms. Pinkett.

They make their way to the reading room where Thomas originally met Ms. Pinkett. She tells him to take a seat and wait for his foster parents to pick him up. She waits for a moment. She gives him a second to process and maybe ask a question, but when it didn’t come, she smiled and left him. 

He wanted to think about how great it was to meet Atticus, but he laid his head against the table instead. He was terribly tired, and his was asleep in a matter of seconds because he had never stayed up past midnight, let alone eight o’clock in the morning. 

He dozed off and was awoken by his foster father gently nudging him. Thomas realized he was dreaming, and on the drive home, his foster dad what he thought about the book. When Thomas recounts the story, Atticus told him in his dream, Thomas’ foster father is ecstatic. They begin to discuss the details of the story and Thomas cannot believe how much of his dream was in the book. At home, he hands the book to his faster dad and tells him he would like to re-read it together, but when his foster father opens the book, he realizes it isn’t “How to Kill a Mockingbird”, it is actually, “The Grey Ghost”, Thomas looks at his foster dad and gasps. His foster dad hid a truth in his smile and handed the book back to Thomas to read.