Softened Heart

The room library was cold, yet the furnace had warmed it blatantly. The lights flickered with the yellow spark and had illuminated the room just enough for some eyes to see words. The ceilings had cobwebs, yet the fashion it brought was serene. The books were neatly shelved in a moderately stout brown bookshelf.

The librarian of the room, Eleanor Hernandez, strolled to and fro holding the Quality-Control Handbook of Joseph Juran-- her eyes were glued on the pages. She was a woman of silence. A little creek on the floor or even a puff of a breath could immediately reach her ears. She loves children, but not the noise they bring. Eleanor once visited an orphanage to adopt a child, but she rejected the chance. She knew, by her heart, children had a special place in her heart, but thinking of waking up in the middle of the night while trudging on the heavy and freezing halls of her house just to calm a child down, made her decide not to adopt one.

She was 52 after all-- why hesitate to adopt one?

Eleanor braided her long black hair into a twisted bun. Her stunning lavender-colored blouse fitted her triangle-shaped body, her fabulously tight grey pleated skirt was just amusing, and her winged beige three-inch heels made her look like in her mid-30s. Eleanor doesn't even wear glasses despite reading hundreds of books a day! She didn't marry nor did she intend to. Single-blessedness was a call to her every night. Once, when she had a boyfriend, they tried to kiss, yet, all of a sudden, Eleanor slapped his face and made him very mad. She had philemophobia-- fear of kissing. She was open for relationships, but not for kissing. How can that be? It would sound sarcastic having a tie and not having an affectionate kiss.

Eleanor was about to head for the acquisition section when all of a sudden, she heard sobs at the reading hall. Smoke whiffed out of her ears and her eyebrows met. She gently placed the book in her hand to a nearby old table. She walked towards the noise and found two teenage girls. Many students were occupying the library, but the two girls were just annoying for her. She hated noise, and mostly, she kicks students out of the place when she finds them noisy.

"Ahem! Excuse me?" Eleanor said. "This library is a context that must be conducive for studying and must be silent. Why are you, among the hundreds of places existing, crying in here?" She sternly said.

The two girls were out of spirit-- dull and lifeless, as they seem to be. They didn't respond.

"Get out!" Eleanor yelled at the girls while pointing at the exit door. The students were now looking at her stirred scandalous scene.

The two girls didn't move, but they stopped lamenting.

"I will count to three and if you don't get your butts out of here, I will be forced to kick you out!"

"One," Eleanor started counting. "Two.....Th..."

"Please let us stay for a while," the other girl said. She was wearing her school uniform and had brought with her a little pink backpack.

"And why would I do that?" Eleanor said as she rolled her eyes away.

The girl didn't answer.

"Come with me," Eleanor told the two angrily. Noise is death for Eleanor. And she doesn't want to hear it, that's why she had pursued becoming a librarian-- complete silence while absorbing knowledge.

Eleanor and the two girls walked with her towards the librarian's office. The office was humid-- an environment way too far from the library itself.

"Sit there," Eleanor told the girls.

The two girls sat down while Eleanor grabbed a seat.

"What's your name?" Eleanor asked the girl who had pleaded with her to let them stay.

"I'm Aubrey, and this is Colette."

"Okay. Aubrey and Colleague...."

"It's Colette ma'am. C-O-L-E-T-T-E." Colette blurted out calmly.

"I'm sorry. Okay, Aubrey and Colette? Right?"

Colette just nodded.

"Let me get this clear," Eleanor said as she cleared her throat. "A library must be silent. Okay? As in total silence. It's a place where you should shut your mouths. Now, if you would come here to only make noise, and I'm sorry to say you should get out," Eleanor told them harshly.

"If you want to cry like a baby," she mocked them while acting crying. "Go to your mommy and say m..."

"That's the thing here ma'am," Aubrey said.

"What do you mean that's the thing?"

"Our mother had just died," Aubrey said as she and Colette started crying again. "We were just...jus..just studying sil..silently when dad called to us and said that mom had gone to eternity," Aubrey stuttered.

Eleanor's soul just shook! Her conscience had awakened! She had not expected this. Eleanor thought that the girls were just chatting around like there were nobody else in the room and were babbling about perhaps their boyfriends or their cute professor. She became drained and regretful that she wanted to turn the hands of the clock back and make things right.

"We're sorry ma'am. We'll just leave," Aubrey said as she and Colette stood to leave.

As if moved by regrets, Eleanor approached the two and hugged them with her warm arms. The girls just froze inside her sheath and cried even more. Eleanor's hug made the girls remember the hug that their mother used to do to them before heading towards school. Their mother died of breast cancer. Just that morning, their mother had just kissed them before going to school and had even cooked bacon for them. But now, she had left them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean this to happen," Eleanor said as she tightened her hug.

Suddenly, the office lit up with hope and love, which was new for Eleanor. She always felt cold on the inside-- frozen. But because of the situation of Aubrey and Colette, it had softened her hardened heart.