There's No Place Like ...The Library?

Their red SUV stopped in front of a white gate guarded by a man in a red suit. Their location was in the woods and it was a bright and hot morning, too bright and hot actually to be called morning. One might say that you are being cooked by the sun.

"Are you Greg Williams?" The man asked.

"Yes, sir," Greg said. "I assume your the new guy."

The man happily agreed. "Yes indeed sir. Welcome back to you and your wife's new home."

The man opened the gate to let them in. The house revealed to be a beautiful blue mansion with a fountain at the center of the house. The fountain is surrounded by those circle roads that you see in the streets. The front patch of the house had many potted plants and had many chrysanthemums growing out of them. The mansion itself is wonderful, yet no one, at first glance, would ever guess what was inside this beautiful structure.

Greg parked his car in the parking lot towards the right part of the mansion. He led his blindfolded wife out of the car.

Greg turned to his wife. “Are you ready to see our new house Carol?” He asked, looking quite excited.

Carol jittered and clapped her hands as she stepped out of the car. “Just take the blindfold off. I’m dying to see our new house.”

“Ok, ok, fine. I’ll take it off,” Greg said as he took off the blindfold. "Surprise! We’re going to live here!”

Carol was so shocked and amazed. “Oh, my! This place is huge and gorgeous!”

Greg felt happy that his wife was happy. “I know! Just wait until you see the inside of the library!”

Carol felt like she heard La La Land win instead of Moonlight. “A…. library dear? I thought this was a mansion?”

Greg clapped his hands and hugged his wife. “Isn’t it wonderful? Just think: we’ll be surrounded by an endless supply of books and we’ll get to meet new people every single day!”

"Lucky me," Carol muttered to herself sarcastically.

Greg heard what she said. He tried to cheer her up.

"Come on, Carol! This is going to be amazing! My father’s last will was for me to renovate our old mansion and turn it into something that the community never had before and direly needs. Before he died, he gave me ₱ 10 000 000 to do something with the mansion. I decided to purchase many books and use the remaining money to renovate and create space for a giant library on the ground floor. There are about a million new and old books inside! I’ll stop spoiling our new home. Let’s go inside and see it for ourselves!”

"Well, good thing this place has a kitchen so I can practice my cooking skills."

Greg's eyes widened. "Um...Well you see Carol....We don't have a kitchen."

Carol's jaw dropped. "What! Where are we supposed to cook?"

"There's a grill in the backyard with tables and chairs for our dining. We'll figure out how to cook there! Now come with me and let's explore our house!"

Carol followed her husband inside and thought about what her husband just told her. Ten million dollars? She thought. He spent ten million dollars in making a library? If I had that money, I’d buy a real home, with a real kitchen. Maybe I'd add in some discs.

This wasn’t the first time she and her husband had different choices. In fact, their characteristics simply did not combine well. While she was a movie lover and a woman of with fine choices for the arts, he was a book nerd and would rather read the Harry Potter series over and over again than watch it. She has friends who are high class and are sophisticated while he has friends who still go to comic book conventions. Somehow, they still had one thing similar: they both love each other though she thinks he is insipid for the finer things in life while he thinks she is boring and weird. This is the reason why Carol reluctantly agreed to go inside their new “home”.

As she entered the library, she saw a customer service desk on the right and a borrow and return section on the left. There was an umbrella stand and an antique mat just in case it was raining. She was shocked to see that what her husband told her was true: there were an uncountable number of books. The shelves were about 11 feet tall and each had so many books in them. She also passed by some tables and chairs. There were also ten computer desks and printers. At least he’s still modern and not some kind of nerd from the 18^th century, she thought.

"Greg," Carol asked, looking around the place, "where's the living room?"

Greg looked liked he'll blow any minute. "We don't have one! Isn't that awesome? We have don't have to be confined to ourselves! We get to mingle with other people!"

Carol let out a sigh of boredom.

She became even more bored when her husband showed her all of the genres of books he bought: action, adventure, mystery & thriller, love and so on and so forth. Greg, however, kept talking about the books.

“Oh Carol! You really should read Agatha Christie’s books! They’re astounding! Better read The Murder on The Orient Express first. If you don’t like Poirot, how about Holmes! They are astounding too! You’re going to love Dr. Watson. He’s such an even more believable character than Holmes himself. If you don’t like thrillers or mystery, how about adventure and action? Maybe, love? Oh Carol! Don’t you just love it all!”

Carol wasn’t listening at all. She kept thinking about telling her husband about selling this place and the books and maybe buying a real, actual house.

However, she confined all these thoughts to herself because seeing how this place made her husband happy makes her happy as well.

She then decided to learn how to love her new “home”.

They kept exploring the library and Greg kept talking on and on about the place and the different books. They kept walking until they reached French Doors that are at the end of the Classics section. By that time, Carol looked pissed and Greg looked like he wanted to blow.

“Oh Carol! You’re going to love what's behind these French doors! This will absolutely blow your mind!”

Carol already had enough. She placed her hand on her head and said, “Greg, I really love you, but this tour is literally giving me migraines. Would you mind showing me where our bedroom is?”

Greg looked like a defeated puppy. “Oh, alright dear. Are you sure you don’t want to see what’s behind the French doors? You’ll love it!”

Carol waved her hand, signaling Greg that she’d like to take a rest. “Well, follow me then.”

Carol followed Greg down the classics section and through the adventure section. They stopped at the table and chairs just before the book shelves. Greg pointed at the stairs, which is at the far right of the mansion.

“You’ll see the master bedroom at your right when you’re already up. I’m going to the backyard to get ready with our housewarming party.”

Carol looked shocked. “A party? In October? What are we going to do?”

Greg smirked and said that it will be a costume party.

Now Carol looked pissed. “Alright Greg. What will I dress up as? Hermione Granger? Or should I dress up as some professor? Look Greg, I love you but I just can’t have a costume party. Honestly, that kind of party is only appropriate for young adults. And this house? Greg, I’m not really into books, you know I ‘m not!”

Greg looked apologetic. “I’m sorry dear. I just thought I can convince you to like what I love.”

“It’s ok dear. Just cancel the party and make me get some rest.”

Carol kissed her husband and made her way up the stairs. She saw that there were 4 bedrooms, including the master bedroom. She went inside their bedroom and found out how big it was. As she walked in, she saw that there was a bathroom and a little hallway that lead to the bedroom. There was a computer desk on the far left, a closet just beside their bed and a plush couch. There was also a TV and a stereo set and some movie disks. Maybe this house isn’t bad at all, she thought as she plopped herself to bed.

After two hours, she woke up and decided to watch the movie Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. As she plopped the disc in, a knock was heard from the door.

“Ms. Sabrina Fairchild, it’s Linus. I came to apologize. May I come in?”

Carol laughed and opened her door to see that it was Greg. She let him go in.

“How do you like the bedroom?” Greg asked as he plopped at the couch.

Carol plopped herself beside her husband. “It’s nice Greg. Look, I’m sorry for yelling at you. It's just that I don't think costume parties are my cup of tea. This house isn't also my cup of tea because I don't like reading. It's boring.”

"What made you say that?"

Carol explained that she never could put together the words from a book to form a story. She had difficulty as a child in making sense of what was happening in a book.

Greg looked shocked. "How did you pass your book reports during English class."

Carol explained that she watched the movies adaptations of the books. In the movies, she was able to make sense of what was happening and she was able to put herself in the scenario of what was happening. If the book has no movie adaptation, she'd listen to her smart classmates tell the story. She explained that she still did better in the books that had movie adaptations than those where she had to listen to her classmates. She explained that her love of movies came from her need to pass her English Literature Class.

Greg hugged her tightly. “Sweetheart, I had no idea. I'm so sorry for what I said this morning I had no idea, but I know how to make it up to you. I made a surprise room for you.”

Carol’s eyes widened. “Really? Where?”

Greg pulled a blindfold from his pocket. “Put this on and we'll find out.”

 “Are we there yet?” Carol asked grumpily.

“Wait and here we are!” Greg announced.

Carol took off her blindfold and looked dejected when she saw that they were in front of the French Doors they saw earlier.

“It’s… just a door to more books,” Carol pointed at.

Greg stepped forward and opened the doors. Carol was speechless.

The French doors actually opened up to reveal Carol’s personal space: a mini amphitheater with a mountain of discs. Caroline looked closer to see that they were movie discs of all the movies she only dreamed of watching. Now, she can literally watch them on the big screen.

“This…This is all for me?” Carol asked, still in a state of shock.

“It was supposed to be, but you told me you don’t want to live in a 'library'. So, I decided to sell the books and this space. There should be a buyer in less than a week.”

Carol literally flung herself to her husband. “Oh Greg. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I should have thought of what you love. You always think of what I like, I should have been more thoughtful."

Greg hugged her tight. “It’s fine dear. I'm sorry too for pushing you to do the things I love. I'm sorry too for not being sensitive on how you feel for books, but I ‘ll forgive you only if you will allow me to have the costume party tomorrow night.”

Carol laughed and said, “Alright! Just let me dress up in the white dress Audrey Hepburn wore in Sabrina. Also, would you mind adding a kitchen inside this place? I'd like to practice my cooking skills indoors so that I'd be just as good as Sabrina was.”

Greg kissed her on the forehead.“Whatever you say, Sabrina Fairchild. After all, there’s no place like our library !” He exclaimed happily.