Two Sisters

Today, I saw a young woman in the quiet room who I hadn't seen since the summer. She was there all day every day from what I saw, sometimes escorted in by her mother. I think she was supposed to be studying while school was out, but she was mostly on Facebook and YouTube. School is out now, and it looks like her sister was cloistered along with her.

The guy with the John Deere hat wore a blank yellow trucker hat today and did not like the look of the quiet room. There were plenty of seats, but he chose to sit in the periodicals section instead. He must have a favorite seat in the quiet room that was occupied today. He sits and reads with arms on either side of the book as if he's afraid it will try to escape. He bends over it, nose almost in the spine, and turns his head back and forth like an automatic sprinkler, moves to the end of the line, pauses, twitches back to start, repeat. He wears thick black glasses when he reads too and looks around before putting them on. I think they're part of his secret reading life, something he doesn't want any of his people to see.

The library is still pretty quiet for the holiday season. Fewer children come to scream, the quiet room is almost always empty. But, there's activity elsewhere, people looking for things to do during their time off. Good for them.