over due fees [

[claire]

"Actually, I have duties to attend to," she said apologetically. "You can take your books to any of the librarians who are at the desk, and they would be glad to help you. By the way, please remember to let the librarian know when you change address so that they can still send you due notices and such."

She glanced over at the elderly woman who was working on the other end of the lobby. It would be her turn to man the desk when Claire left, and despite her education and her good intentions, Cass was a bit senile. Claire was confident that the woman would distract him for a while unintentionally, and she would be able to get off of her shift without running into him again. She really wanted to get home so that she could meditate on what to do next. Looking back over to Will, she smiled shyly and looked down at her nails, embarrassment coloring her pale cheeks.

"Please excuse me," she said. "I have to put the rest of those books away before I can clock out for the end of my shift."

She closed the desk and walked out from behind it, returning to the rolling shelf and the rest of the books. It was fortunately a very simple matter to put them back in their places; it left her with lots of free time to think and observe without being observed. Her hands were quick and she unerringly put everything in its place and wheeled the empty rack back into the door marked "Employees Only". This William Talbot... Why did he make her mind feel so tempestuous? It was like there was something in the depths that was fighting to free itself. No matter the time for her games would begin soon.

((Exit Claire.))

[William Talbot]

"Oh I see, well thank you."

Will gave a faint smile and nodded in understanding, if not relief as he watched her stamp the paper work and place it in a slotted box before she closed the desk, locked it, and at last moved to the cart of books and went about sorting and replacing them.


He let the feelings around him flow over his senses as she left, the black hole of her mind and persona gone at last, and it allowed him to order his thoughts better, and that let him move on to the many books in the building, and while he was careful not to get too close to her, he did notice that she had a veiled interest in him in the way she watched him, carefully, and never directly, even when she was facing him...

Soon enough Will had loaded his arms with books on subjects from the studies of history, to the theories of magic, and religion, with more than a few works of fiction mixed in, ranging from classics to modern day mysteries and thrillers, it was an impressive stack, and while the kindly old lady that checked him out seemed nice and smart enough, she was somewhat easy to distract and Will had to more than once steer her back to the task of swiping a bar code scanner over the spines or backs of the books he had gotten, before she at last entered the number on his temp card, and cheerfully announced that his books would be due three days before, in 1994...

Thankfully a younger man with a thin mustache, and better eyesight and focus, intervened before William had either a melt down or a blank out, and before the large steel arms on the buildings clock tower made another groan, thunk and chime to mark the passage of the last quarter hour, Will was walking out the front doors with a canvas bag stuffed with books, and his mind packed with questions lacking ready answers about the strange emotional void that was the young blond librarian.


{{{Exit Will}}}