Episode 17: A Quest for Interesting

Episode 17

A Quest for Interesting

“The air is cold and dry as Jennifer takes her usual route to the library,” Jennifer narrates, having taken it upon herself to tell her own story. Even though her life has grown slightly more interesting in the last few weeks, Jennifer was overcome by the sense of boring that morning.

She had woken up feeling extraordinarily mundane and had no motivation to go to work... it had nothing to do with the work itself, but rather with the fact that Jennifer would be doing the exact same thing again. She can't imagine that someone would read a story where the main plot centred around the same daily events, chapter after chapter.

Working at the library was interesting, at first, but now that it has become normal, Jennifer's fallen back into her former sense of dullness.

“The road was long, but not long enough for Jennifer to finish pondering the past's events. Events concerning Angus and Enoch and, finally, Tessa as well. A lot has happened and there is even more to think about, but before our main character finds any sort of a mental conclusion – she reaches her destination.”

Jennifer takes a sip of coffee, admiring the building while she does so, and then skip-walks in – to keep things interesting.

“Once inside, Jennifer discovers that the library is empty. Not even her mentor, Ms H, in sight. Jennifer takes a seat behind the front desk and admires the building around her.” Silence sets in for a while.

“It is a castle, a vault, a fortress that protects all the characters in their frail glory...” Jennifer starts, only to be interrupted by the sound of humming.

She listens and spins her seat around, once realizing that the sound is coming from behind her. Jennifer grabs her coffee and walks into the maze of shadowed shelves, all the way to the back of the library. She finds the door to the archives open and her heart leaps with excitement in her chest. She's never found the door open, it’s always locked and Jennifer hasn't been able to work up the nerve to ask Ms H what is kept in there.

Jennifer slowly takes a step into the room.

Yellow lights illuminate the space, there are shelves lining the walls and a round table in the centre of the room, chairs packed around it. The table is polished brightly and has a white vase in the centre – wild grass, daisies and sunflowers are placed inside. The shelves to her right are packed with old books, their leather covers cracked by age, and typewriters in boxes and roles of posters and newspaper books. To her left, there are desks and chairs and a staircase leading downward. Ms H comes walking out from between two shelves and stops humming, at the sight of Jennifer.

“Sorry, I heard the humming...” Jennifer starts, feeling the urge to turn around and run away.

“Oh,” Is all a stern-faced Ms H says and continues to dust shelves. Before long she's humming again, as though she had completely forgotten about Jennifer's presence in the room.

Jennifer clears her throat. “May I help?” She asks.

“I'd rather you not,” Ms H says, glancing over her shoulder with a smile. “You can take a seat at the table though; you won't be allowed in here without supervision and it really is something to behold.”

“Thank you,” Jennifer says, thankful that Ms H is letting her stay and letting her look at the mysterious room for a little while longer. For a while Jennifer just looks around, as Ms H continues to tend to the old books, but soon enough Jennifer starts looking at Ms H herself.

The librarian.

The guardian of the fortress, the queen of the castle, the lock on the vault – the keeper of characters. Ms H doesn't just intimidate Jennifer, but, for some reason, makes her feel strangely safe as well.

Jennifer looks away, for fear of Ms H catching her staring, and looks at the bookshelf to her left. Jennifer tilts her head to the side, as she spots something interesting.

On the shelf, nearly in the centre, there is a book with a red cover and a library sticker obscuring half of the book's title. The other half reads Boring Little Life.

“Ms H, isn't there a book just like that one in the library?” Jennifer asks and points at the book.

“No,” She says with a shrug. “These are one of a kind books, there aren't any copies of them available anywhere and they are never to leave this room. That one is the only one in existence, we can't risk lending it out like any of the other books.”

Jennifer frowns, but before she can protest Ms H's claims and tell her that there really is another copy and that it resides on shelf 41, Ms H asks Jennifer a surprising question.

“What is bothering you?” Ms H asks, not even turning in Jennifer's direction.

“Nothing,” Jennifer says and to this Ms H turns around with a smile, her skirt swishing as she does so.

“Then why are you dragging around that little dark cloud with you?” Ms H asks, picking up a stack of books and cradling them in her arms.

“I...” Jennifer says, squirming in her seat. “My life is boring. Day after day it's the same thing, the same problems and it's getting rather dull.”

“I see,” Ms H says and walks in between two shelves.

“I really like this job though,” Jennifer says, starting to panic. “It's just that, everything in this town is so dull.”

Ms H walks back out, a new pile of books in her arms, and places them on the table, to Jennifer's right, and takes a seat.

“Your life is filled with the potential to be interesting. It'll, however, only stop being boring when you stop being a passive character in your own life.” Ms H says and Jennifer shyly breaks eye contact. Looking at the books that Ms H placed on the table. She reads the titles; Crow's Nest, Clockwork, The Heir of Mystery... why do the names sound so familiar?

“Look at me,” Ms H says and Jennifer tares her eyes from the books. “Your life is only boring because you let it be. I'd advise that you start actively taking part in your own life. Don't let time pass you by.”

Ms H stands up and takes the stack of books with her, placing them on a shelf behind Jennifer. Jennifer turns around, feeling the intense urge not to let the books out of her sight, but becomes detracted when her eye catches sight of a pair of book ends. Carved out of a dark red-ish wood are two little sparrow book ends. Ms H continues on with her tasks.

“Would you mind if I send you for coffee?” Ms H asks. “I did not have the sense to bring my own,” She says and nudges her head at Jennifer's coffee.

“No problem,” and ten minutes later Jennifer was on her way to the Grind.

“I'm not passive,” Jennifer states to herself, but hardly believes her own statement. She takes out her phone and searches what the characteristics of a passive person are, but, before her over-heating phone can produce any search results, she walks into Angus – quite literally.

“Sorry,” Jennifer says, with the intent of walking away immediately, but Angus' reaction forces Jennifer to stop – he laughs at her.

“Head in the clouds again?” Angus asks after having calmed down. “Where are you headed to?”

“The Grind.”

“I'll walk with you,” He says with a smile and Jennifer decides to go with it. Making a fuss wouldn't achieve anything and, besides, she has missed him somewhat.

“I haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?” Angus asks as though nothing had happened. As though everything concerning their previous episodes were nothing more than a hazy past dream.

“Vacation work,” Jennifer says, not wanting to tell him exactly where she's been working. “And, you?”

Angus starts talking, telling stories and taking over the conversation – back to his usual self. Jennifer, though, tunes him out and starts thinking about what Ms H had said.

Surely Jennifer wasn't passive. Surely, she hadn't let time pass her by, had she? Her life didn't have much potential to be interesting, did it? And besides that, she'd put in the effort to make things interesting over the years...

“Same old Jennifer,” Angus suddenly says and she's pulled out of her head. “If you didn't want to listen to me, you could have just said so.”

Angus starts walking away.

Jennifer looks around, stunned for only a second by what had just happened, but then realization strikes. Ms H was right.

Guilt bursts forth deep within Jennifer's heart and the jagged edges of regret tear her false self-perception to shreds as she realizes what she had just done. Barely being able to breathe, Jennifer calls after Angus, but he plainly ignores her.

“Angus, wait!” She calls after him again and starts jogging to catch up, but he doesn't slow.

“Please, please,” She repeats as she jumps in front of him, but he continues and walks around her, leaving her staring at an empty space.

“Please wait,” The words come as her eyes fill with tears, but she refuses to let them fall and tries to calm herself. Her throat becomes blocked by all the words that she had never spoken and suddenly she feels as frail as the paper she knows she is made of. Once she had pure intentions, but over time the ink had seeped into her heart, leaving it black and selfish and hungry for immortality. For isn't that what Shakespeare promised his love? To be immortal in the pages of a poem. Never to be forgotten, for as long as those words are read – for as long as the human mind can remember and comprehend.

That has always been her heart’s desire, for if she wasn't real, Jennifer would make sure that at least she would live on forever in the minds of her readers. She had done everything out of the fear of being forgotten – left somewhere on a shelf gathering dust – she had done everything out of the fear of being boring and ended up missing her main plot entirely.

“Wait for what, Jenny?” Angus asks – exasperated – from somewhere behind her.

The sound of his voice brings on a calm wave of relief and Jennifer takes in a deep breath as she turns around, finding him only a few steps away. She bursts out crying at the sight of him.

“Wait for me,” Jennifer wants to say, but rather walks toward Angus – who doesn't move. Jennifer gives him a hug, he didn't walk away.

“I am so very sorry,” She sobs. “For everything, for not being there, for ignoring you, for being such a bad friend... I'm sorry Angus. I am so sorry.”

For a while Angus does nothing, but just before Jennifer breaks away – having accepted that their entire friendship was forever lost – he hugs her back.

***

Holding her paper bag in the one hand and Ms H's coffee in the other, Jennifer tries her best to wave her goodbye to Angus, but she fails earning a shake of the head from her friend.

They managed to talk things out and get Ms H's coffee, Angus even walked her back to the library. On their way back they had gotten so deep into a conversation that neither of them had seen Mr Nibbs coming, until it was too late. Mr Nibbs couldn't dodge them successfully, swerved out of the way, but in the process fell from his Segway. Jennifer had managed to hold onto the coffee, but had accidentally let her take away bag and the muffin inside fall.

Mr Nibbs seemed fine, though, and even handed the startled Jennifer her take-away back with a laugh, after calming her and giving her a pat on the back. Strange old man, Jennifer thinks as she walks up the steps and into the library.

Once inside, she hands Ms H the coffee. Ms H had given Jennifer the money for the coffee, but, considering muffins, Jennifer was happy that she had taken her own wallet with her as well.

Ms H and Jennifer go in their separate ways – Ms H continuing to clean out the archives and Jennifer starts checking the shelves.

By far the most boring duty, for Jennifer at least, is checking shelves.

All it involves is that Jennifer walk from shelf to shelf and check that all the books are in their rightful places, according to their numbers. Sometimes people take a book off a shelf and forget exactly where they had taken it from and just put it back in the first open place they can find...

After an hour, Jennifer starts to get hungry and contemplates going back for her muffin, but before she can she hears the chirp of a bird. She turns in the direction from which the sound had come, but sees nothing. Barely a second later, she decides to walk in the direction of the sound. Not long after, Jennifer spots not a bird, but Enoch sitting at one of the corner desks. She stops. That isn't his usual seat and, besides that, he doesn't look like his usual self.

Jennifer silently walks up to him and takes in the seat to his left. He glances at her, says nothing and looks out in front of him again – as though Jennifer were nothing more than another shelf in the library.

Jennifer's nature is to talk, to fill the silence with verbal nonsense, but the weight of what had happened earlier with Angus convinces Jennifer to rather keep quiet. There is a reason why Enoch had gone to the library to seek sanctuary, without Jennifer's knowledge.

After a while, Jennifer lies down on her arms, not saying a word – not aloud or in her silent language. She is not sure what to do, but she knows that talking is the one thing she should not do.

“Why are you here?” Enoch asks, after a long while.

“I was following a sparrow and found you,” Jennifer says.

“I don't have the patience for your games today. And, that's not what I asked,” Enoch says, stands up and starts walking away. Jennifer grabs his hand as he walks past her bench and he stops. Jennifer frowns when she finds that his hand is covered in scrapes and fresh bruises, he pulls away.

“I'm here,” Jennifer says, her words and features lined with concern. “What's going on?”

“I can't tell you,” Enoch says.

Jennifer gets up and walks around the bench, to stand in front of him.

“I can't tell you, Jenny,” He says and takes a step away from her, but instead of asking him a single question Jennifer gives him a hug and promises herself that she will find out what is going on.

“I would never ask you to break a promise,” She says, holding him tighter. “Just tell me who you had gotten into a fight with.” His body tenses and he steps out of her arms.

“A wall,” Enoch says, stepping away from Jennifer and taking a seat on one of the benches. “I was frustrated, so I picked a fight with a wall.”

“Enoch, if you're lying to me...” Jennifer says, feeling the urge to cry.

“I'm not,” Enoch says. “I promise, I'm not.”

Jennifer bites her lip, while thinking the matter over.

“Cheer up, I'm fine,” Enoch says, smiling sadly. “Don't you have some letter we can decode? Or some adventure we can go on?”

Jennifer sighs and decides to indulge Enoch's clear attempt to change the subject. She won't ask him to break a promise, which means that she will have to find out what is going on for herself. Until then, all she can do is be a good friend to Enoch.

“I have a secret to show you, I found a strange book.”

Jennifer leads Enoch to the second floor and tells him all about the strange book that she found and about what Ms H had said about the one-of-a-kind books in the archives that morning.

She leads him all the way to the 41^st bookshelf, getting excited, Jennifer continues to talk faster, not quite getting to the part of the story where Jennifer had found that the book was completely empty, before finding that the shelf no longer housed the book.

Jennifer stands in disbelief, looking at the spot where Boring Little Life was.

“So, where's the book?” Enoch asks.

“It was right here,” Jennifer says, moving away books and looking behind them, out of shear desperation. “It was right here.”

“Maybe the book in the archives is the one you found out here,” Enoch says.

“It can't be. The books in the archive aren't brought into the library, ever,” Jennifer says. “If it were the same book, someone would have had to take it out of the archives and put it here. Ms H would never do something like that...”

“What is so special about this book anyway?” Enoch asks, leaning on a bookshelf.

“It's blank,” Jennifer says, not wanting to admit that she had dreamed about the book several times before discovering it. “Or maybe, just seemingly blank...”

“What?” Enoch asks.

“The first Author's Advocate letter was written in ink that could only be seen under a black light, maybe this is the same?” Jennifer says as she walks up and down the shelf, someone could have misplaced the book. Someone could have picked it up and put it down where it didn't belong. Jennifer expresses this theory with Enoch and they both start walking up and down the shelves, looking for their missing book.

“So, about earlier...” Enoch starts saying.

“You don't have to say anything,” Jennifer tells him and continues to scan one of the selves. “That book really is gone. It really was the one in the archives...”

“Jennifer,” Enoch says. “Thank you.”

Jennifer stops in her tracks and turns to look at Enoch, she tilts her head to the side.

“Thank you for not digging,” Enoch says. “I know it's hard for you to let this go, but thank you. It really means a lot to me.”

Jennifer swallows hard, knowing full well that she's going to dig, and just nods a stiff smile in Enoch's direction and continues walking. She can't very well drop the entire thing, Enoch means too much to her. For a few minutes she considers dropping the entire matter, but doesn't feel comfortable with the idea at all.

“Okay, so that settles that,” Enoch says as they reach the last shelf of the second floor. “Your book is in the archive. We'll have to get it some other way. Do you have the time?”

Jennifer puts her hand in her jacket pocket, getting out her phone, and, with it, a paper flower falls out. She gives Enoch the time and picks up the origami flower – the entire piece of paper is covered in numbers.

“Author's Advocate,” Jennifer says and laughingly hands Enoch the flower. With everything that's going on, not even the Author's Advocate wants to give them a break. A sudden idea pops into her head. “Would you mind decoding it? We can meet up later to talk about it... but, I've got work.”

“No problem,” Enoch says, studying the flower, turning it over in his bruised hands. The sight makes Jennifer decide, she can't drop this – no matter what Enoch wants.

“I just have a few places to be, but after that I can have a look at it. We can meet up this afternoon, if you like?” Enoch says and smiles – it's strange how much he likes the entire mystery.

Enoch starts walking toward the stairs.

“Where are you headed to?” Jennifer asks.

“It's a secret,” He answers, stops in his tracks and turns around. He gives Jennifer a hug and a thank you, Jenny and confirms their meet up that afternoon, before walking away.

Feeling bad, not wanting to break a promise to Enoch, Jennifer just stands there for a while, but, remembering the bruises, Jennifer runs down the stairs and into the archives.

“Ms H,” She starts, but finds the room entirely empty.

Jennifer looks around and spots the book on the shelf, where Ms H had left it that morning. Jennifer is overcome by the urge to take it, but she knows that if she wants to follow Enoch she can't waste any time taking the book and hiding it.

Jennifer runs out of the archives and finds Ms H sitting behind the front desk.

“Ms H, I have a favour to ask,” Jennifer frantically says. “Please, may I have the rest of the day off?”