This Story Is Not About TommyInnit

Tommy LOVED reading. Ever since he learned how to read, he was fascinated. Every book he read, it felt like he was dropped into a whole new world and had to start over. He went through books like fire, reading a few every day when he was younger. Although he enjoyed reading, he wanted to make other books so his readers would fall into a new world, just like him. Fortunately, he learned about writing in the upcoming years. 

His father loved reading, and since Tommy loved his father, he too began reading and reading and reading. Words swirled around him when he was writing. Taking his imagination to a whole new level, he wrote his first word down, ‘Tommy’. It was his biggest feat. He cried with happiness in the classroom, while the other students had dull faces and stared at their cookies or potato chips in their snack container on their backpack, just waiting for snack time to arrive.

His letters turn into words. His words turn into sentences. His sentences turn into paragraphs. His paragraphs turn into stories.

He was in 4th grade when he finished the syllabus for 7th grade English. Only his father was happy. His mother, however, was a drunk that rarely came out of the house. She would scold him for no reason. Unfortunately, he had to bear the consequences. The only way to escape home was a lie.

His best lie was tricking his mother into thinking there was an event every day at the library, and attendance is mandatory. His mother, focused on the TV, said rude words at him to get out and do whatever he wanted.

Every day, he goes to the library to do his work. After a while, the librarians became his friends.

“Good morning Mrs. Angela, Mr. David, Mrs. Lizzy,” were his everyday words. The librarians always wave at him with a smile. 

The library was his serenity; sanctuary; home away from home. The first thing he did was sit at his usual table, which was right next to a window. If it was occupied, he would sit at another table, but for now, he sat on the usual table. Now, it was time for his homework, or as he liked to call it, librarywork. Or serenitywork. Or sanctuarywork. Or home away from homework.

He always does math first. He doesn’t like math, which is why he saves the best for last. Each math problem is a war to him. Before starting each problem, he looks at the time. He does it as fast as he can. The second he is done, he looks back at the time and says how long it took him. He likes beating his previous records. He finishes his math quickly. The science and social studies work are the same. Lastly is his English work. There are two sections; Reading comprehension and Writing. 

The reading comprehension is simple, just answer a few questions based on a passage or article. Nothing much. 

Writing is his favorite. Whatever the prompt is, he takes 5 minutes to take notes and brainstorm. He then sets a 30-minute timer to finish his writing. Once he is done, he takes it to one of the librarians who didn’t go outside for a power walk. Today, it is Mrs. Angela who was still sitting at the desk. She smiles and took the notebook on which he wrote. She read it carefully, pointed out some grammar or spelling mistakes, but was overall very impressed. They always repeated how he was going to be an amazing author, and that they would be the first up in line to get your books.

This made Tommy smile. Library closing time is in two hours, so he sits in front of a library computer. He plays games on it for around 30 minutes. The library doesn’t like kids playing games from the internet, so they pre-installed a few on the machines. Minecraft, Roblox, and others were there. Other uses for the computer would be searching the internet or going on the library site to place requests or pay fees. He normally plays Minecraft. He signs in to his account and played on his worlds for a while. 

30 minutes later, he signed out and closed the computer. He walked over to the shelves and chose random books to read. He always finished one before the library closed. If he didn’t feel like reading, he went to writing. If he didn’t feel like writing, he was reading. If he didn’t feel like doing both, he talked to the librarians. If he didn’t feel like doing anything, he would-… umm-…uhh-… well-… that has never happened to him so far, sooooo we don’t know what would happen.

Anyway

He was reading a book that was very interesting to him. Time flew by while the book’s pages flipped. He didn’t read in his normal spot, which was in a comfy corner. Instead, he read near the bathroom, where almost no one went. When it was library closing time, Mr. David walked toward the comfy corner to find Tommy gone. He thought Tommy left early because his backpack was also gone. He went back to the other librarians to say he left early. A few minutes later, the library turned off its lights. Tommy never noticed. 

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king,” he read from the book.

He looked up to yawn. Opening his eyes, he notices the lights were off. He got up and walked around, noticing it was empty of life. They looked at the clock and notices it was half an hour past closing time. He started to fret but realized the doors were always open. The library was all to himself. He had a blast.

Epilogue

He returned home safely with no one noticing

The End

tHiS sToRy DoEs NoT hAvE aNyThInG tO dO wItH tOmMyInNiT