In the Reading Room (NaNo Effort)

The room was huge. The apprentice gaped. He had been warned of course, but he couldn’t quite believe it. He looked in every direction and couldn’t see past the rows and rows of desks in front of him. The room was mostly made of polished wood. They would have needed a forest and a million carpenters to make so many shelves. For all its space, the room had the warm, comfortable feeling of someone’s home study. There was a crackling fire every few metres and attendants scurried about carrying pieces of paper and looking frightfully busy.

‘The Reading Room,’ boomed the Chief. ‘In total, there are six billion desks with six billion texts upon them, yes? We couldn’t read them all. We simply don’t have the manpower. But we can monitor, and we do.’ He straightened his waistcoat. ‘Not only is it the sacred duty of our kind, but it is pretty good pay, too.’ The apprentice tittered nervously.

‘You would start off with a book or two, and move on to looking after an entire community. The standard assignment is fifty books per reader, and we find that this system works pretty well. If something goes wrong, we’ve set the books to shoot out a distress signal. A little flare of red or what have you,’ the Chief waved his hand absently. He stroked his walrus-like moustache. ‘As soon as that goes off, a supervisor will come and help you, if you need it.’

As if on cue, a small sparkle of red leapt out of a book near the Chief.

‘Hmm,’ he said, adjusting his glasses. ‘Looks like a car crash or something. Nothing too serious, or it would have really sparked. Cole! Get over here!’

A nervous looking man named Cole dashed over.

‘Have a look at this, will you? I’m just showing the new boy around.’

‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Cole, nose in the book. ‘I’ll see you around, yes?’

‘Probably,’ squeaked the apprentice. He peered over Cole’s shoulder.

‘Do you mind?’ Cole said tersely. ‘I have a situation here.’ He made a few notes in the margin of the book with a large quill. After a few moments scratching, he looked up with relief on his face.

‘I got an ambulance there as soon as I could,’ he said, wiping sweat off his face. ‘Nobody will notice that it couldn’t have gotten there for at least twenty more minutes.’

‘Good work, Cole. I knew I could count on you to fix it up.’ The Chief clapped him on the back. Cole blushed.

‘Now, where were we?’ The Chief strode on, the apprentice at his heels. ‘Ah yes. The nursery. It’s mainly duty for semi-retired staff. It’s a bit of a soft shift, actually. They sleep most of the time.’ He pointed to a fenced off area where skinny soft-covers rested together on desks, supervised by only a few watchers. There were plenty, but nothing seemed to be happening.

The apprentice looked beyond the nursery to where some older books lay. The Chief followed his gaze.

‘We call that area the Village. It’s where the older books go. You become hard, working there for too long.’ As they watched, a pathetic amount of red sparks fizzled out of a decrepit looking tome. A reader walked over to the book, bent down to study it, then slowly closed it. The thud of the book closing resounded through the Reading Room. The readers looked up from their various duties and shook their heads. All was silent for exactly one minute. After that, they got on with their work. A reader carefully picked up the book and took it over to a vast bookcase. A small sign on one of the shelves read ‘Out Of Circulation.’ The reader consulted a long list and, with tenderness, shelved the book.

‘Now, I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but we’re responsible for just one city. The country areas for this state are in this building, yes, but we have very little to do with them. No doubt you’ve toured the regional areas?’ The apprentice nodded.

‘I suppose that’s all I really need to show you today. Cleveland can fill you in on what you need to know for the every day business. Do you have any questions while I’m here?’

The apprentice thought for a moment.

‘Do we have books, too? Where do they keep them?’

‘Of course we don’t have books,’ laughed the Chief. ‘We’re the Readers. We watch over people. Somewhere, perhaps, my book rests on a desk somewhere. Then again, anyone who read it probably wouldn’t believe it, would they? They don’t know we exist.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll no doubt see you at the next staff meeting. Try to work hard, won’t you?'

The apprentice made a solemn promise that he would be diligent. He had to, in his line of work. Tomorrow, he would be a Reader, and lives would depend on him. He stood for a moment, pondering his new role and then scurried off to have his robes fitted. The Chief watched him go, and silently thanked the new generation for taking over. The apprentice didn’t look back. A clock chimed and behind him, all of the pages in the vast Reading Room turned as one.