Written by: thequietwriter

PERU, INDIANA, USA (THE FRINGE)

August 15, 3:16 PM

Reports from inside the zone are all the same: Residents are experiencing a euphoric sensation. While no one appears to have been harmed by what is happening, there are concerns about what the long-term effects will be. All attempts to venture into the zone to make further analysis have failed. We will continue to keep you updated on this event...

The closed captioning of the news report was enough to make my heart climb into my throat. Across the room, the usual local conspirators were huddled around the computers, sharing headphones as they watched news reports and the video feed of a rebel streamer still inside the zone. They were muttering disagreements about what they were seeing, debating whether it was all really happening or not.

The constant stone of worry in my stomach had shifted to an ivy squeezing my heart.

"It's a hoax!" Mr. Calum - the library's most frequent conspiracy theorist - declared, for what had to be the tenth time in the last hour. "The government just wants us to think something is happening."

"I can't believe the government I voted for isn't doing anything!" was Mr. Friedson's reply. "You can be sure I'm not going to reelect any of them!"

"Gentlemen, please keep your voices down!" I reminded. "This is still a library, after all!"

They didn't even glance at me as they began to discuss which political party was more to blame. Maybe I was too strict to cling to the rules of the library? After all, it wasn't as though they were bothering anyone. They had been the only visitors all day.

But the rules existed for a reason, and, as much as I could, I was going to adhere to them.

My gaze drifted to the second floor above me. I knew all too well how easily raised voices could be heard between the floors. Hopefully, Mr. Calum and Mr. Friedson hadn't been too loud.

Convincing myself that one of them would let me know if there was any change, I forced myself to look away from the computer. My cart was full of books that needed to be cleaned. It wasn't a terribly important task, but it gave my hands something to do.

The first book in my hands, I sprayed it and wiped the cleaner from the cover. What did it all mean? I set the book on my second cart, ready to be reshelved.Was something worse going to happen? Next book. Spray, wipe, and set back down. Were the aliens going to go away? Attack?

Even though my hands were busy, my mind was not distracted from what was happening in the world. It was hard to believe it had only been two weeks since the... well, the Unidentified Flying Object? had appeared in the sky. Since then, nothing had been learned about it or what it was doing here.

Or, as Mr. Calum insisted, nothing that had been learned had been shared with the general public.

Life was suddenly a science fiction adventure that I hadn't asked to be part of. Sci-fi wasn't even a genre I enjoyed reading. I usually relied on my fellow librarians to make those recommendations to patrons.

I ran my cloth over the cover of the book in my hand, careful not to use too much cleaner. It would never do to get the pages wet and ruin them.

"I hope Emma appreciates this when she gets back," I muttered under my breath. "She's always complaining that she gets the dirtiest books to clean."

Where were my coworkers? They had all evacuated the minute the governor made the order. I didn't blame them. They had to do what they had to do for their families, but it would have been nice to hear they had made it to safety.

The sound of the door opening made me lift my head. Oh, dear. "Hello, Mikayla," I greeted the twelve-year-old girl coming in. I'd hoped she would stay upstairs today. "Is there something you need?"

"I'm bored," she declared. "Liam is watching YouTube. Can I help you?"

Somehow, it didn't surprise me that her younger brother was glued to the tablet. "Did you finish your book?"

"Yes, I did," Mikayla promptly replied. "Can I put another star on the wall?"

With a nod, I handed her a pen and a large gold star. She scrawled her name on the star and then took it to the wall. Stretching on the tips of her toes, Mikayla stuck the star as high as she could.

This was something the children's librarian had done several years ago, before we used an app to keep track of summer reading programs. How excited the children had been to get their star first on the wall!

Since Mikayla and Liam were at the library all the time now, I proposed that they put a star on the wall every time they finished reading a book. Mikayla loved the idea. She was highly competitive when it came to the summer reading program; her brother, on the other hand, was not as eager to read.

"Now can I help?" Mikayla asked, turning back to me.

"Alright." I set one of our complete series of Harry Potter on the desk. "You can put these back on the shelf for me."

With a serious expression of concentration, Mikayla picked up the entire stack and carried it to the correct shelf. I watched her carefully put each book in place, taking care to align the books neatly against the edge of the shelf.
It had been the third day after the UFO's appearance that the two children had walked into the library with a stack of books. I'd been grateful that someone was returning their library books before leaving town - until I learned their mother had driven-off without waiting for her children.

During summer reading programs, there was invariably a parent who ignored the requirement that children needed to be accompanied by an adult. I'd lost count of how many times we'd been forced to call the police when the program ended and we were left with unaccompanied minors and no way of contacting parents.

Had this been an act of desperation? A mental breakdown? Why abandon your children at a library when you were evacuating?

No calls to the woman's cell phone had been answered. I'd searched online for other family members, but they hadn't responded to any messages. With the police handling evacuation and trying to keep riots from getting out of hand, Mikayla and Liam had stayed at the library with me.

The second story of the building, the children's section, had been taken over as our bedroom. I'd brought my cat, Shakespeare, from my apartment, and we had all been living in the library ever since.

On the one hand, I was grateful not to be alone during... whatever you called this thing that was happening to the United States. At the same time, having the responsibility of two children on my hands, and being at my place of work twenty-four-seven, was something that had never entered my mind. Staying behind to keep the library open was one thing. Living there was another!

"Miss Anderson, do you have any more books?" Mikayla asked when she returned to the desk.

"Not yet, but you can start bringing me every book by James Patterson." That would keep her busy for a while. Popular series and authors were the priority of my cleaning efforts. Sometimes it was difficult to clean them since they were often checked out.

"Why doesn't someone go out there?" Mr. Calum exclaimed. "All we're getting is speculation!"

"Mr. Calum, please!" I reprimanded. I did not need his pessimistic opinion affecting Mikayla.

"Miss Anderson?" I turned toward her, an uneasy tone in her voice "I see smoke."

Alarmed, I ran to the window. If there was smoke, there was fire, and fire was a librarian's worst nightmare. Mikayla was right. There was smoke so thick and dark it had to be very close.

It took a moment for me to find my voice. "Fire!" I called out. "Everyone evacuate the building!"

When I spun around, no one at the computers had made a move. Their focus was glued to the continuing broadcast. Groaning, I rushed to the wall where the fire extinguisher was waiting.

"Mikayla, get your brother and Shakespeare and get out!" I snapped. "Everyone! Evacuate the building. Please!"

While Mikayla ran for the stairs, I dragged the fire extinguisher to the front door. None of the men even glanced over. "Idiots," I muttered under my breath. Working with the public had always revealed the stupidity of some people, but never as much as in the last two weeks.

I ran down the marble steps to the door. There were three teenagers standing just outside. "The library is closed!" I said without pausing. I charged around the corner of the building. If something happened to this one-hundred-year-old Carnegie Library on my watch, I would never forgive myself!

It might be a stone building but fire was sure to cause some damage!

In the back corner, I saw the source of the fire. The garbage bin had been dumped over and flames were consuming the bags of trash. Next to the garbage were branches that had definitely not been there before.

Putting that detail aside, I pulled the pin on the fire extinguisher. With any luck, I would be able to put this thing out myself. Who knew if there were any firefighters still in town? I aimed the nozzle at the fire and braced myself. I'd never actually had to do this before. Praying, I squeezed the trigger.

The contents sprayed out and after a moment, I remembered to sweep it from side to side. The smoke seemed to grow darker and thicker as the powder hit the pile. After a few minutes, when I didn't see any flames, I let go of the trigger. There was still some smoke coming from the pile, and it smelled awful.

Uncertain, I nudged the pile with the toe of my shoe. I knew it was all too easy for a fire to flare up after a person thought it had been put out. Breathing out, it seemed as though the danger was past, but I decided to wait just in case.

As I stood there, the silence that had become normal in the last two weeks made me uneasy. There were supposed to be birds singing in the trees and insects humming in the grass. Instead, there was only the occasional bark of a dog in the distance.

How strange it was for it to be so gloomy outside and yet not raining! It was August, a time when it was usually bright and sunny and hot. Instead, the temperature was at least twenty degrees colder than what it should have been.

Glancing around, I tried to figure out how this fire had begun. I was sure I had closed the bin when I took out the trash. Had an animal knocked it over? Even that would have been an unlikely reason for a fire to start.

It wasn't as though this was one of the big cities where there had been rioting and looting. What was there to gain from trying to burn down a library? Destruction for the sake of destruction?

There was a laugh from the front of the building. Were those teenagers still there? Were they waiting for something or someone? Curious, I carried the used fire extinguisher with me to the front of the building.

"Stop it! Those aren't yours! Miss Anderson! Miss Anderson!" Mikayla shrieked.

As I rounded the corner, the tallest boy called out, "Run!"

Just as I realized he was holding the door open with his foot, his two friends came running out the door. They both had backpacks in their hands and out of one fell a CD case.

A CD case that I knew well and had a library barcode on the side.

"Thief!" I screeched, outraged. Everything clicked into place. They'd set a fire to draw me out just to steal some CDs? Or had they pilfered some of the DVDs as well? "Stop!"

All three of them took off at a run.

"You- You- Hooligans!" It was probably the least threatening thing I could have said, but the only thing that came to mind. "Stop! I'll-I'll call the police on you! You'll be banned from the library for life!"

Their laughter seemed to float on the air, taunting me. How I wished I had a copy of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables to throw at their fleeing backs. It was thick enough to knock some sense into their stupid heads.

In fact, the hand holding the fire extinguisher started to rise. It might be empty, but it was sure to slow them down.

But, instead, I lowered my hand. What was the point? They knew as well as I did that the police were busy elsewhere and it was highly unlikely anyone would come over a few stolen DVDs. And I would never risk harming a book when I had the worst throwing arm ever.

Suddenly, the extinguisher was too heavy to keep holding and I let it fall to the ground. I landed on my knees next to it a moment later, tears filling my eyes. How was I supposed to report this? How would the library recover from such a theft?

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," I muttered. Not just those thieves, but myself. I should have known better than to leave my post. Leaving the library unattended was the last thing I should have done.

I brushed my eyes, but the tears would not stop. The patrons at the computers hadn't come, but they must have heard. Not just when I called for the building to be evacuated, but just now when I was shouting. How could they not have heard those thieves rifling through things?

They didn't care.

All they were worried about was their conspiracies and theories.

"Why am I even here?"

The governor of the state had ordered a mandatory evacuation and the mayor had added his command to do the same. Within hours, the roads had been choked with people headed west. Everyone who could leave abandoned everything to get beyond the shadow.

My gaze drifted to the library sign. Reading gives us someplace to go when we have nowhere to go.

All of my coworkers had said I was crazy to stay behind. My family had begged me not to be irrational. "Let other people risk their lives. It's just books," they had said.

But it hadn't been about the books, though I did consider them important. It had been about being the unchanging source of information. If technology failed, the library would still stand and provide information from books that had stood the test of time.

Where had that idealism gotten me? Covered in smoke, nearly deaf from conspiracy theories, and...alone. I had been carrying the burdens of the library on my shoulders with no one else's help.

"Miss Anderson! Are you alright?"

Mikayla.

Hastily, I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm fine." I cleared my throat. "The fire is out. Everything is fine."

Or as fine as it could be.

"I tried to stop them," Mikayla said, "but they wouldn't listen to me. I even kicked his ankle, but he just pushed me down. They took a lot of the DVDs."

Brave girl!

"Shakespeare is hiding somewhere," Mikayla continued. "Liam is trying to find him, but I don't know if he will."

"I found him!" Liam called out. "Miss Anderson, Shakespeare is hiding under a shelf and he won't come out for me."

No doubt the shouting had upset my cat. At least there was no more threat of fire. "Alright," I answered, pushing myself up from the ground. "Thank you, Liam. We'll leave him be and hope he comes out when he is hungry."

When I turned around, the seven-year-old boy was leaning out the door. "It smells bad out here," he complained, his face scrunched up in disgust.

"It's not that bad," Mikayla immediately contradicted.

It actually was. There had been no sign of a trash truck in weeks, which was not unexpected given the evacuation. However, there were still trash cans on the curb filled with trash. Today the smell was compounded by the smoke from the fire the teenagers set, that disgusting scent of burning plastic and trash.

"Miss Anderson, the guys at the computers are getting loud," Liam complained. "I think they're going to fight."

Why was I not surprised? Every time I turned my back, those grown men completely forgot the rules. I was tempted to unplug the router and put them in time-out!

"Thank you, Liam. Why don't you run in and remind them of the rules? I'll be right behind you."

With a grin, the towheaded boy pulled his head back into the library. Mikayla reached down and picked up the fire extinguisher for me. "Do you need me to keep watch at the window?" she asked. "I can let you know if they try to come back."

"No, I don't think they will be back." At least, I hoped they wouldn't. What else of value was left?

Mikayla slipped her free hand into mine as we walked to the front door. "No one else is going to hurt the library while we're here, right?"

My heart warmed as I smiled down at her.

No. I wasn't alone.

"Right," I told her. "In fact, why don't you help me find a place to put the rest of the DVDs so no one tries to do that again."

Her eyes lit up. "Yeah!"

As we walked through the door, I heard Mr. Calum exclaim, "Why doesn't someone do something already? It's been all day and we don't know a dam—"

"Shh!" Mikayla and Liam chidedin unison.

"Did you just try to hush me?" Mr. Calum demanded. He jumped up from his chair and shook a finger at the children. "Children do not shush adults, do you hear me? I am your elder and that means you have to respect me. Do you understand? I can say whatever I like, however I like, when I like!"

How dare he? Who did he think he was?

"Mr. Calum, that is quite enough!" I said sharply. "There are children present and this is a library. You will keep your voice down or I will have to ask you to leave."

He turned towards me, his mouth open to argue.

"No," I continued, putting my hands on my hips. Every instance of this man trying to sidestep the rules flashed through my mind. "This is not up for debate. If you cannot abide by the rules of this library, you are not welcome here. This is not your library and you do not make the rules. I do. You will keep your voice down and be respectful of the other people who are present."

His eyes were wide. "They're just children! They shouldn't even be–"

"I shouldn't have to remind you that none of us 'should be here'," I interrupted. "We were all ordered to leave. I chose to stay and keep the library open. Everyone I knew told me to leave, to think of myself first, and I didn't, because I have always believed that the library was the one constant source for people to turn to for facts and information. No matter what happens in the world, the library doesn't falter or fail. Because of me. I will continue to make sure the library remains open and that means that I will ensure the rules of the library are obeyed. If you have a problem with that, I can just as easily choose to leave and close the library. That means no more internet connection and no more computer access. Is that what you want?"

Color flooding his face, Mr. Calum shook his head and sat down. The other three men stared at me with wide eyes. I glared right back at them. "My library. My rules. Is that understood, gentlemen?"

As one, the four men nodded. They all turned back to their computers with sheepish expressions and began whispering together.

The kids turned to me with triumphant expressions and I grinned at them. "Now. Liam, help your sister find a hiding place for the DVDs. It is important for us to protect library property. I'll keep an eye on these miscreants and make sure they follow the rules."

With matching nods, the pair bolted to make a thorough search. I settled back into my seat. I closed the tab on my computer broadcasting the news of the mysterious light. What was the sense in worrying about what would happen? If something changed, I would deal with it like everything else.

Come what may, the library was a safe zone and I was its protector.

<<<<< END >>>>>

Find more stories by thequietwriter on Wattpad.

Bethany Swafford, known on Wattpad as thequietwriter, has loved reading books for as long as she can remember. That love of words extended to writing as she grew older and she became determined to write her own books. She has written eight historical fiction novels and three novellas. THE LIBRARIAN is her first contemporary/sci-fi short story.