Silent Voices

“Attention library patrons. The library will be closing in five minutes. Please take your books to the check out desk and exit by the front door. Thank you for choosing the Heart Light Library, your friendly neighborhood library. Good night, good people.” 

That was a familiar voice that greeted all the library patrons each night at 8:55 pm and it was also Ron and Julia’s cue, the two security guards to get ready to make what they call the rounds. Each night after the library closed and all the employees and the people were gone Ron and Julia got to work. Anybody who thought that their job was easy had never done it. 

“Have a good night.” The supervising librarian said as the last person headed out of the front doors. She carefully locked the door and as usual the rest of the staff assembled near the reading room, near the front steps leading to the door. Everyone had to be counted for before anyone could leave for safety reasons. Their unsaid motto was “No staff left behind.” 

“ Looks like everyone is here so now it is time to go people.” James, the supervising librarian said as he mentally counted heads. He took a deep breath of relief and the twelve people who had been working that night followed him to the front door where Julia unlocked the door and let everyone outside. Once outside they all scattered to their cars in the parking lot, took off on colorful bicycles, or waited in the front for their rides. Once they were out of the building it was time.

“Are you ready?” Julia said to Ron as she turned the lock on the front door. 

“Yeah, as ready as I am going to get.” Ron joked.

Ron and Julia’s job was to check every section and inch of the library to make sure that nobody was left in the building. Julia had never walked so much on a job until she took the job as a security guard for the library. Her first week on the job she thought her feet were going to fall off. When she got home all she wanted to do was soak her aching feet and take a shower and go to bed. She never thought that a library could have so many spaces and nooks and crannies and never thought in a million years that she would be the one to search all of them in the middle of the night. 

Ron started at one end of the library and armed with his flashlight that his grandmother had given him when he started the job, aimed it at the corner of the library called the young adult section which was the smallest section of the library. He moved the flashlight up and down the stacks and stacks of books and chuckled at some of the titles. He laughed aloud when he saw a book titled, “The Young Man’s Guide to Understanding Girls.” He wondered how old that book was. Ron loved working at the library and his girlfriend said that was because he was a “book nerd.” He took it as a compliment although he knew she didn’t mean it that way. He reached for his walkie talkie that he and Julia both had and turned it on.

“Young Adult section clear.” He said and walked to the next section.

Julia was working in the fiction section. It was the biggest section in the library and she didn’t really like all that walking but she enjoyed browsing the books as she worked. She shines her flashlight on the books which were resting on the shelves. Some of them out of place and some of them arranged neatly in the order that they should be. This was the most used section in the library. Julia thought that everyone must love a good fiction story. She walked and looked around, shining her flashlight in every corner of the section and made a mental note of the books she was coming back for in the morning to check out. 

“Fiction Section clear.” She yelled into her walkie talkie. 

Julia and Ron met in the lobby to secure the next section together. The next section was the one that nobody liked to secure at night. The next section was labeled the Crime Section but Julia and Ron called it the Haunted Section. 

Rumor had it that a long time ago when the library was built that section was built right over a cemetery. That was the only part of the library built there. The people living in the city at the time the library was built protested until the city dugged up the ten graves that were there and buried the remains of the people in the graves at the local cemetery a few miles away. But, the spirits of the people never left the library. The story was that the souls couldn’t rest in peace because they desturbed their final resting place when they built the library. The spirits were only seen at night after the library closed. There was always one little girl spirit or ghost who sat at the far table in the section and she was reading. Nobody knew what book she was reading because when you got close to her she would disappear as fast as she appeared. She had big brown eyes, long braids and her face was covered with freckles. They called her the girl with the freckles. She would appear only between the hours of ten and midnight. There was also the man with the axe. The man with the axe was over six feet tall. He wore a torn black cowboy hat and a brown suit which had a small tear on the right pant leg. He never wore shoes and he always carried an axe. He would always be somewhere around the true crime section. It was believed that he had some connection to true crime. Nobody ever figured out what it was exactly but people believed that he had killed someone with that axe he always carried and therefore he couldn't rest in peace. Along with the man with the axe and the girl with the freckles there was one more spirit. This spirit was a small baby lying in a small woven basket. The baby would just smile and had big blue eyes which were very haunting. Legend had it that the mother of the baby had left him there hoping that someone would give him a good home. But, when they found the baby he was dead in the basket. 

Julia and Ron braced themselves for what they might see when they got to the section. Julia turned off her flashlight so she would not scare the spirits. She believed in spirits and definitely didn’t want to anger them. Ron on the other hand thought that all this was nothing but some kids playing a joke on them. Julia didn’t understand why he thought that since they never, ever saw any kids in or around the library at night. But, she figured that he was scared and it was a way of being in denial about the spirits. 

Ron walked two steps ahead of Julia and took a deep breath as he shined his flashlight towards the table where the freckled face girl was always seen. He jumped back and almost stepped on Julia’s feet. Julia jumped too. They both jumped for different reasons. 

“Did you see something?” Julia whispered to Ron.

“I don’t know.” He whispered back.

“How can you not know? Either you did or didn’t.” Julia said.

“Julia, look over there towards the back table and tell me what you see.” Ron said. His face was as white as the snow. 

Julia hesitated briefly and walked around Ron and turned on her flashlight and shined it towards the direction of the table. She blinked her eyes twice fast. She thought that she was in the twilight zone for a minute. This couldn’t be right. 

“You see it right?” Ron asked. His face was still white as the snow as he turned to look at Julia.

“I do.” Julia managed to mumble.

Before either of them could say another word it happened. They couldn’t believe that this was happening. Neither of them could move. They felt like they were frozen in place. The spirits, all of the spirits had surrounded them. 

Julia and Ron were frozen in fear. They didn’t know what to do or what to say. Ron opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. Julia opened her mouth to speak but all she managed to say was one word. Julia had to gain her composure no matter how scared she was. She needed to know what the spirits that surrounded them wanted. She turned around and looked at Ron. Ron opened his mouth again to scream but once again no sound was made and in that moment Ron’s body slumped to the floor. Ron had fainted. 

Julia didn’t know if the spirits could talk but she tried to talk to them anyway. She had never been this scared in all of her life. She took several deep breaths and glanced at Ron on the floor to make sure he was still breathing and he was. He had recovered from his fainting spell and was now sitting on his butt on the floor still speechless. 

“I don’t know if you can understand me. But, can you please tell me what you want or something.” Julia managed to say and instantly thought how dumb that must have sounded and couldn’t believe she was actually talking to a bunch of ghosts. 

“I don’t want you to harm us. I don’t think that you will.” Julia continued.

The freckled face girl looked straight into Julia’s eyes. Julia felt as if the girl was trying to tell her something but she didn’t know what. At the same time the feeling of being scared left her body and Julia knew that none of the spirits would harm them. She had read somewhere that they don’t harm anyone, that is just in the movies. 

Julia gulped down her own saliva and she held her hands straight out towards the girl and she took another deep breath before she said what she thought that all wanted to hear. 

“You all can rest in peace now. There’s no need to come back. We remember you and we will never forget.  We will never forget the sacrifices you made in life. We will always, always remember.”  Julia said, still holding out her hands towards the girl.

A few minutes later they all disappeared. 

Julia helped her co-worker off of the floor and helped him to a chair. 

“What just happened?” He asked her.

“They wanted what we all want after death. They wanted to be remembered and they wanted to rest in peace. They couldn’t do that until someone told them it was okay.” Julia said. 

“But, how did you know what they wanted. After all, they probably have been here for hundreds of years.” Ron asked.

“When I looked into the eyes of the little girl I just knew. I don’t know how I knew but I just did. They won’t be back again.” Julia said.

“How do you know?” Ron asked, trying to stand up on his legs which still felt like rubber.

“Because they will always live in my heart and the hearts of their loved ones for generations to come. There is someone that loves them. The baby’s mother loved him and only wanted a better life for him. She came here from another country and once she was here she couldn’t take care of him so she went to the place where all the books were and the woman with the kind eyes was the librarian. She put her baby in the woven basket and carried him to the place where she saw the kind woman working and kissed her beautiful baby boy good-bye. But, the baby couldn't not bear to live without his mom and he went back to the angels.” Julia said looking up.

“Okay, Julia, you and those ghosts are creeping me out. How in the world do you even know that?” Ron asked.

“What do you think?” Julia responded.

“I don’t know why I am asking. And if you tell me that the ghosts told you I will faint again.” Ron said.

“Well, I will catch you when you faint.” Julia said and winked.