Episode 15: The Theory of Tomorrow
Episode 15
The Theory of Tomorrow
Jennifer starts
when an owl hoots loudly outside her window, but calms and returns to her book
soon enough. She is lying in her bed, in the dead of night, reading The
Missing Lunch Box.
After having
freaked out for about half an hour or more, because of the fact that Enoch had
written Jennifer a letter, she had decided to distract herself. Jennifer had
continued with her overdue homework and then, once that was finished, she
started reading her prescribed play.
She didn't mean
to like the book, but about two acts in she had fallen in love and had to
finish it. The play really was good and did correspond somewhat with her own
life, but not nearly enough for it to be her story – and what a relief that
was. That's why she hadn't read the book earlier, Jennifer was too scared that
it was her story and didn't want to know how it ended. The thought that
Jennifer's book might be out there somewhere, is absolutely terrifying.
She glances at
the alarm-clock on her bedside table and to her shock it was already past
midnight. Jennifer puts the book down, she didn't realize how late it had
gotten – she has to be up bright and early in the morning.
Jennifer
switches off her bedroom light and climbs in bed.
Tomorrow everything
will make more sense, she tells herself and goes to sleep.
Jennifer is
walking down a narrow path, between extremely high bookshelves. She is walking
with a purpose, she is going somewhere, she is on her way to do something.
Jennifer
suddenly stops.
“What was I
going to do?” She asks herself, but cannot seem to answer the question. She
starts walking again, but dwindles aimlessly and starts walking in between the
shelves. Jennifer loses herself while reading the names of the books – Crow's
Nest, Clockwork, The Heir of Mystery – and sometimes she even loses herself
while reading the first few pages of the books, looking at the maps and reading
the dedications in the front.
A little bird
chirps at her and, for some reason, Jennifer decides to follow...
***
The next
morning, Jennifer wakes after the second ring of her alarm-clock. No one else
in her family is up yet, more than half of the town isn't even up yet, but
that's the cost of responsibility.
After having
dressed and brushed her teeth, Jennifer makes herself a cup of coffee to-go and
packs her breakfast in her backpack. She starts thinking about what Enoch had
said about The Author's Inclination and about the Author's Advocate. It
does tell her a lot about who this person might be. The main theories are that
the Author's Advocate may have a few regrets, which could give motive to all
the letters – the motive being: to try and correct someone they deem in need of
help. But, that's all speculation. All this might end up proving is that the
Author's Advocate is a regular at the library and likes reading... in which
case, everything is falling into place perfectly, because Jennifer has access
to all the library records.
Jennifer puts on
her jacket, takes her coffee and bag and heads out.
From what
Jennifer can tell, the main character is one with a severely broken heart, a
person that is fuelled by regret. She, the author, wants to fix what she had
done wrong, to the extent where she wishes that she were able to erase her
entire life in order to start over. Even to Jennifer, that would be extreme.
She has made mistakes in the past and, sometimes, wishes to change them, but if
the price to fix her past would be to erase it all entirely and start again, it
would be too high. To reach the point where starting over is a better option
than living with mistakes, that speaks volumes about the character's state.
This book does
say a lot about its author and about its target audience.
She makes a
mental note to search the library's database to see who had checked out the
book, it might lead somewhere. It might even lead her directly to the Author's
Advocate.
Jennifer walks
past the book collections bin outside and pushes open the front door of the
library – walking in.
Instead of
getting stuck behind the front desk, Ms H sends Jennifer into the library with
the trolley and the command to place the returned books on their respected
shelves. Jennifer wanted to argue, for she wanted to check the database, but
decided rather not to – patience is a virtue and she can search for the
Author's Advocate once her job is done.
It took about
half an hour for Jennifer to get the hang of the numbering system, but, after
she had figured it out, it was no problem at all. The shelves were numbered
too, which made it a whole lot easier to navigate the shelf maze.
After an hour
the library had opened, and people started walking in.
“We tell
ourselves tomorrow and go to bed without a second thought,” Jennifer says,
placing a book back in its rightful place and continues onward. “But, then,
we wake up to the same reality in the morning. It just occurred to me that
tomorrow is merely a theory, an ideal present that we promise ourselves is just
around the corner. Only to never reach 'tomorrow' for we don't live in the
future, but only in the present. This is the place where nothing really changes
from day to day. This is reality.”
Jennifer walks
past a shelf numbered 30 and stops for a minute.
“How many
shelves are there?” She asks herself, with her reacquiring dream in mind.
Jennifer shrugs it off and continues to place books back on the shelves, a
dream is a dream and there is nothing more to it.
“But, that's
the funny thing,” Jennifer continues to talk, musing more to herself than
to her reader. “When something changes in the present, we all panic – we
wish for change, but don't expect it. And, when something does change, it
changes dramatically. It's never really a small change...”
Tap-tap-tap
Jennifer hears something from behind her. She looks over her shoulder and finds
the sparrow outside the window again. Taking a few steps closer, she looks out
the window and sees Mr Nibbs drive past on his Segway, other than that there's
nothing else to see. She frowns at the little creature; it tilts its head to
the side all innocently.
“Does this
bird have nothing better to do?” Jennifer asks and moves on. Only to
decide, about five minutes later, to stop by the front desk and ask Ms H if
there is a shelf number 41. Seeing as a little bird had gone through all the
trouble to fly into Jennifer's dreams, she had settled on the fact that it
might just be important.
When Ms H tells
her that there isn't a shelf 41, she can put her mind at ease, and continue
working without being bothered by pesky little sparrows.
While making her
way back to the front desk, Jennifer starts thinking about sparrows and about
how she's sure that it's the same little bird that keeps pestering her, not
that she can tell birds apart...
As she rounds
the corner, Jennifer stops in her tracks and retreats back behind a shelf. At the
front desk, talking to Ms H, is Tessa.
“What on
earth is she doing here?” Jennifer asks and sneaks around a few bookshelves
to get closer and, maybe, hear what they're talking about.
“I returned the
book a few days ago, dropped it in the bin outside,” Tessa says and Ms H lifts
an eyebrow.
“What is the
name of the book?” Ms H asks.
“The Author's
Inclination,” Tessa answers. Ms H types the name into the system and Jennifer's
entire body freezes with shock – she never scanned the book back into the system.
She doesn't even have the book with her, she left it with Enoch.
Is Tessa the
Author's Advocate?
Jennifer loses
track of her thoughts and time between the shelves, doing nothing other than
stand and think and try to connect the dots, but failing in all aspects.
“Tessa can't
be the Author's Advocate. I don't even want to entertain the thought that this
might have been a prank.” Jennifer says and starts pacing the shelf's
length. “It doesn't make sense, it can't be Tessa...”
“Ms Hudstone,”
Ms H says from behind the front desk, not even looking in Jennifer's direction.
“Only trolls skulk around like that and my library does not have trolls, do I
make myself clear?”
“Sorry, Ms H,”
Jennifer says, taken back by the fact that she had seen her. Jennifer notes
that Tessa had left, but before Jennifer can go back to work Ms H continues
talking.
“Another thing,”
She says, taking off her glasses and cleaning them. “If you are looking for a
place to put your nose, pick up a book. Other people's business, is none of
your business.”
Jennifer doesn't
know what to do, she just stands around awkwardly, wanting to ask Ms H about
the 41st bookcase's existence, but can't seem to get any words out
of her mouth.
“Do you have
something to ask?” Ms H says and replaces her glasses on her face before
looking at Jennifer.
“I wanted to
know how many shelves there are? Are there more than forty?” Jennifer asks,
shyly. “I just saw that the shelves were numbered and got a little curious.”
She quickly adds.
“There are almost
sixty shelves in this library. Number forty is upstairs,” Ms H says. “If you
tell me what you're looking for, I might be able to help.”
“No, thanks. I
was just curious,” Jennifer says and quickly goes back to work.
Later that day,
Jennifer goes up to the second floor and, not long after, she finds shelf
number 41. She looks at the books on the shelf, old books with old covers.
On the exact
same spot where the red book, without a title, was in her dream, Jennifer finds
a red book as well. It looks old and the entire cover front and back is red,
but this time there is a title printed on its spine. The title is half obscured
by the library sticker, but the rest of the title reads Boring Little Life.
Jennifer takes
the book off the shelf and flips it open, maybe there is a cover page? But, to
her surprise, Jennifer finds that the entire book is blank.
She flips
through the entire thing, but doesn't find a single word printed anywhere.
Jennifer frowns
and places the book back on the shelf. Why would there be a blank book in a
library?
Jennifer decides
to text Enoch and tell him about Tessa and her dream and the strange blank
book. All of this not knowing nonsense is starting to get to Jennifer, it's
high time that they figure it all out and get some answers.
