For Spectacular Minds

Every day, between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm, the ‘St. Augustine Public Library for Spectacular Minds’ is bustling with human activity; Imaginative children, bookish teens, and introverted adults converge at this location to indulge in themselves in the confines of countless pages and words. Some get caught up in the rhythms and rhymes of Doctor Theodore Seuss. Others find their attention grasped at the throat by the fantastical visions and voyages of Jules Verne.  Or perhaps the worlds of fiction doesn't fascinate one who seeks to uncover the fantastical secrets of our reality, perhaps individuals would rather be lost in the stars with Carl Sagan or experience a journey through time with Stephen Hawking...

The three-story building provides its members with such a wide array of material that one can be lost in the labyrinth of shelves for hours upon hours. One can find themselves reading word afterword,  page after page, and even book after book. No matter what the taste, the preference, or the desire is; the ‘St. Augustine Public Library for Spectacular Minds’ has a collection for any book enthusiast, lover, or worm. And it has the power to convert long-mundane hours into grandiose spectacles that feel like mere minutes. Causing her visitors to wish that they had the ability to control time and stretch those measly ten hours of operation to a staggering 24-hour period where one can relax, put their feet up, and enjoy a good book.

There have been many instances when the mechanical voice through the intercom announcing that "the library will close in 30 minutes" causes children and adults to cry! Kicking and screaming begging for hours to be extended! Trying to bargain with the librarians to allow them to stay for a few more minutes! Attempting to hide out in the three-story labyrinth, where they can spend their night lost in the sea of words instead of being pried away from the books and forced outside in the cold-dark reality that surrounds them! A reality they are forced to confront every moment of their life! The reality that they seek to escape from! But day after day, the citizens of this three-story city are forced to leave. At every 5 pm, the building excreets a crowd of long faces who stumble into the parking lot, longing for just one more second in the palace of pages.

Then at 6 pm, after all the librarians have checked all the shelves, all the bathrooms, all the reading rooms, and all the nooks and crannies for any book who may be far from their home; the lights are shut, the doors are locked, and the ‘St. Augustine Public Library for Spectacular Minds’ is put to sleep until her awakening at 8 am for the next day...However, there is always stirring in the night.

Due to Humans diurnal nature, they never really have a grasp on the true circumstances of the night. The black blanket that casts a spell of drowsiness on all of us. Many scientists, researchers, explorers, television creators, and dreamers believe that "Space is the Final Frontier''. Space is the great unknown, space is the greatest mystery, space is the final question that desires an answer. But it is all wrong. Space is a great question that is in need of an answer, but it is not the final question. What is the final question? What is the final frontier? What is the great unknown? It is simpler than one thinks. It is simply, the night.

Humans believe they understand the night, they comprehend it, and they know all its secrets. However, they only know what the night wants them to think. The night presents itself with a 'mask'; it allows us to see what it wants us to see, not what is actually there...And behind that mask is something that our mortal minds can and never will comprehend; an entirely separate world of organisms, beings, entities, and creatures that only traverse the world as the sun sets in the east. Beings that are capable of critical thinking, deduction, as well as knowledge of an entirely different world than our own. We can go into hours upon hours of describing this hidden reality that hides from the naked eye but out of all the creatures and critters that separate themselves from us, there is one beasty that particularly captures the attention. An organism that lives in the ‘St. Augustine Public Library for Spectacular Minds’: the 'Crandook'.

A Crandook is the common size of a house-cat, it is an anthropoid that's body resembles that of the ring-tailed lemur subtract all the fur. Giving its torse, arms, hands, legs, and feet a scaly-leathery appearance that is similar to a featherless chicken. However, there is fur found upon its head and tail. The head is identical to the common Raccoon: the ears have a triangular shape, there is the 'domino mask' formation around its eyes, the long snout with the tiny black noses at the end as well as an impressive row of fang. And finally, black eyes that allows for the dark to become more visible. To describe the tail of a Crandook, is too describe a 3-foot-faceless-king cobra covered in seta. Although, contradictory to the Crandook's size, they have complete functionality over their tail. They utilize the tail to assist them in climbing, to wrap around objects, to use as an indicator for if danger is about, or even as a brush to clean their skin. 

If one ever was seen  out in the wild, the observer would come to the conclusion (specifically based on its appearance)  that the Crandook's diet consists of bugs, berries, and bananas. But as history tells us time and time again; appearances are deceiving. The diet of Crandook is knowledge; it consumes items that emit knowledge. Items such as phones, computers, dvds,  and of course: books!

When the clock strikes 8 at ‘St. Augustine Public Library for Spectacular Minds’, the Crandook awakens and traverses it's three-story buffae! Leaping from shelf to shelf, it sifts through each of the correctly placed books and chooses which one will make a tasty meal! Which one will provide the most efficient type of knowledge! Which one will be the most enjoyable! It lurks and stalks it's bound-motionless prey. Glazing it's hand slowly over each of the book’s spins, trying to feel which is the best, which is the most delicious, which one will be the most satisfying. After 10 minutes of contemplation, the Crandook finds its three candidates. Takes them away into a scheduled area in the air vents. Opens the cover and begins tearing into the book! If the book was conscious, it would start wailing in pain, howling in agony, and crying for mercy! But alas that is merely a 'what if' and if that 'if' was true, the Crandook would not care! It is hungry!

After tearing through the books, it returns and finds more books and more and more! The cycle continues until the crack of dawn. At 7 am, when beams of sunlight shine through the window, Crandook retreats to it's hidden quarters and sleeps. Awaiting for the next night. Librarians do their inventory of the shelves and always discover that a few books are missing. They check the computers; they were not signed-out, they should still be on the shelf. Questions race through their minds!

"Were they stolen?"

"Were they misplaced?"

"Did someone forget to sign them out?"

"Where are they?"

And as the questions pile and pile, they begin accusing the common customers, threatening to remove them from the library, and who would want to be removed from Heaven. As the investigation and Accusations continue, the Crandook slumbers away in its secret chambers, that no one will ever be able to stumble upon purposely or accidentally. It awaits for the ‘St. Augustine Public LIbrary for Spectacular Minds’ to go to sleep, once again. Where it’ll reign page-tearing terror on it’s victims.