1. Library Girl


    Date: 11/9/2023, Categories: Occupations, Author: Bisamrattan

    You could call me a dirty pervert, but I'm really into paper books, since I was a little boy. What's the big deal about paper books, you'd say, everything's digital and online now, and I'd say you don't get it at all. Screens don't give you that solid weight in your hands, that unique smell of old paper and typographic ink, that feeling of the pages against your fingers that have been turned by hundreds of people before you, leaving their fingerprints (and sometimes other things) on them, that crackling sound when you open an old volume, that resistance when you try to fold the corner of the page to mark where you stopped (yes, I know librarians hate it when we readers do that).... And most of all, the smell. Nothing in the world smells better than big rooms full of old books.
    
    That's why the first thing I did after moving to this city... well, the second thing, the first thing was renting the apartment... the second thing was finding the Central Library and signing in.
    
    The building was big and old, over three centuries old, and it had always been the library. It had been repaired and expanded many times, and like the ship of Theseus, it was still the same library.
    
    I was filling out the registration form at the checkout - no cheap electronic fake, real old yellowish paper, and they even offered an ink pen if you wanted it, they totally won my heart and soul with that - when I caught a glimpse of bare skin out of the corner of my eye. I glanced to the side and ...
    ... froze, my mouth hanging open.
    
    There was a slender, completely naked girl, walking noiselessly barefoot, carrying a neat stack of books that reached from her hips to her chin, pressed against her small, firm breasts, and the light from the reading lamps reflected off her delicate, almost transparent skin. Her long hair, of an unusually light, almost grayish white color, reached down to her beautiful buttocks and was tied back with a few leather straps. Paying no attention to us, she walked along the rows of tables and disappeared behind the storage door.
    
    The librarian on desk duty caught my stare and chuckled softly.
    
    "Meet Lila, our depository keeper. And welcome to the club. Everyone's first reaction to her is like that."
    
    I made a heroic effort to complete my form without making any mistakes and handed it back to her.
    
    "Wha... Why... Who is that?"
    
    She rested her chin on her hands and told the story I assumed every new library member was told.
    
    "You've probably heard of those autistic savants, haven't you? Well, Lila is one of them. She registered with our library as soon as she learned to read - which was about four years old - and has spent almost all of her time in our reading rooms ever since. She is incredibly intelligent and remembers everything she reads."
    
    She pointed to the storage door.
    
    "All those books over there, thousands and thousands of volumes - Lila knows them all by heart. Cover to cover. Titles, contents, text, illustrations, sources, ...
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