things move around

I wandered the corridors of the sixth floor, a place of utter mystery to me, until I heard voices. I entered the corporate library through a back door, and fought my way through dense stacks to an area in which six or eight people were standing, chatting and snacking on home-baked brownies and lavender shortbread. I recognised someone I knew, a woman from H.R. who I once sat next to on a plane. Her name was (say) Cathy.

Cathy gestured to an array of stationery, laid out in a manner pleasing to the eye. “It’s free”, she said. There were pens, pads of paper, post-it notes, rolls of sticky tape, &c. It was good quality, but as far as I could tell it was the same stuff kept in the stationery cupboard on the fourth floor, where I work. Not wanting to appear churlish, I availed myself of a weighty rollerball.

Then a librarian approached. But not just any librarian: this was the coordinator himself, a bright-eyed Chinese-Canadian who shook my hand inoffensively. I couldn’t think of anything to say, and after a mute pause I made some asinine comment about the large quantity of books present. I realised that of the eight people in the room, four (or 50%) were library staff; the hosts of the corporate library open house were in danger of outnumbering the guests. This would be an embarrassment for the likeable coordinator. Secretly I prayed that a new guest would arrive before any of the present ones left.

Cathy was asking one of the librarians, or possibly the technician, if he could locate an article in a recent edition of the local paper. She explained that it was about computer addiction and she wanted to show it to her wayward, wargaming son. A passing hotshot from I.S. bragged that the son of the director of I.S. was ranked seventh in the world at World of Warcraft, causing all present to look down at their shoes.

I ate some lavender shortbread. I didn’t realise you could eat lavender. To be honest I think the lavender was a bit of a gimmick.

There was an exciting display of new books on the rise of China as an economic power. But I ignored this and went straight for the stack of books for giveaway. I weighed an ancient tome on the geology of Canada in my hands. I have an incipient interest in geology and thought maybe an old book would be simpler to understand than a new one, there being less accumulated knowledge in olden times than at the present day. But this book was pre-tectonic, and anyway, I still couldn’t make sense of the technical jargon.

I found a World’s Classics paperback edition of Nostromo and grabbed it, thereby relieving the corporate library of its sole work of fiction. Stunned, I asked the coordinator how Nostromo had got into the corporate library, and he smiled bemusedly and shook his head. All four library staff were keen to inspect my find. I sensed they had had some kind of wager as to what sort of person would claim Nostromo. There was no hint of disgruntlement at my ignoring the extensive collection of non-fiction and periodicals. It was smiles all round.

I left. Now the hosts outnumbered the guests.