The Library

Well, I should have expected to see you here at the library before too long. What with you being so curious and all. You waiting on somebody to give you an invitation to go on in or you want to come in with me? Cuz I can tell you this for free, nobody’s giving out invitations and ain’t nobody gonna come out here and drag you inside. At least not on a day like today. They wouldn’t have to. You’d want to get in out of all this rain, wouldn’t you? It hasn’t rained like this since 1919. Of course I wasn’t alive then! I read about it in Book VII right there in the section about a good storm washing away rotten grievances. You ought to read it some time.

Of course, it wasn’t so much the storm that did it but the moving on that followed it. But come on in out the rain, I’ll show you around while we dry off. Wipe your feet there on the mat. That’s it. Scrape off all that dirt and soot. No need in tracking footprints all over the library. You know what they say about footprints leading a body to the grave, don’t you? No? I don’t suppose you’d want to find out, would you? Don’t look scared. It was just a question like how you doing today? Who do you think you’re talking to? What are you afraid of? You know. One of them questions you might have the answer to but are better off keeping to yourself. No, not rhetorical. Common sense.

You’re probably wondering why the mat just says come and not welcome like the ones in those thick catalogues Mother Opal used to get. I’m sure they have them where you from. Slick pages full of double-wide freezers, wardrobes and cardboard boxes that ain’t hardly wide enough to put a body in like they claim to be. Ain’t no misprint. Why would it say well when the well’s over there and the mat’s over here? I know that ain’t what welcome means but that would just be saying another thing it don’t mean, wouldn’t it?

Wring your coat out just like I’m doing here. Squeeze out as much rain as you can. Water leaves a trail just as sure as dirt does. And besides, you don’t want to get no water in one of the books. Some of them are handwritten. The last thing you’d want to do is smudge out someone’s apology, leave a handprint over an I’m sorry, erase somebody’s forgive me, it won’t happen again—I swear. All the big apologies are kept right here in the library so we can check them out when we need to or when anyone’s got a mind to remember what the apologizer said--since they usually ain’t around no more.

Folks got a way of turning their noses up at an old apology. Even a classic one like the one the founders sang years and years ago. It was beautiful. Full of ought nots and never agains, and thou shall and thou shall nots. It gets you right here. Course, they got it right there too.

Still, better a worn apology than a new one—especially if you apologizing to one of them timers. When you find yourself in need of one, go flip through one of the apologies. Might even come across one of mine. I think the best ones are the ones from folks still living. Almost shows they worked. You know?

That’s all you need to know about the A section. We ain’t gonna read them right now. The first thing you ought to do is get to studying the ordinances. Folks have a way of testing you to make sure you know how to live your life. They’ll start an old time saying, an innocent one like always mind and leave the air empty for you to fill it up with to ring in time from Book II. Nothing worse than not having the right words when you need them. You’ll find all of the ordinances, first, second, and updated editions in the B section. What do you mean they should be in the O section? What kind of sense would that make? They’re books, aren’t they?

Get you a library card and check out as many books as you can carry. No sense reading them in order. You can skip around as much as you like. I’d read the new editions though. It’s nice to know the history of an ordinance, who did what to inspire it and all but when you caught breaking one of them, ain’t nobody but you interested in the history of the breaking of it. Once you understand the present, then you can get comfortable in the past. For now, I’d recommend you get to know Book XIII. You’ll find out more than you want to know about the Moving On there.

Once you’ve read your fill of books, I recommend visiting a while in section S. Can I show you what’s there? Sure, ain’t nothing good ever come along by waiting on it. You go on in first, I’ll follow.

Where you going? You’ll knock something down with all that commotion and fast walking. What do you mean I should have told you? It’s the S section! Where else would we keep the skeletons?