#64 Tuesday

Dear diary,

Happy National Library Technicians’ Day! Today libraries all across Australia celebrated the ‘techies’ in a variety of ways. Some hosted award ceremonies, others handed out expensive prizes for achievement, and some of the lesser funded locales simply gave them the day off. We, however, decided upon a different approach.

TJ and Sylvia decided to co-host today, although unlike Goldie and I they chose to cooperate. They blended their collections together for a teenage movie day, which ran in both the library and the Council hall next door. Sylvia hired two enormous projector screens, one for each venue, which were set up for screening the films. All looked set to go.

We realised at the last minute that Sylvia had forgotten to hire the projectors to go with them, as she didn’t read the form correctly (she’s illiterate and works in a library – go figure). This caused no amount of panic and upheaval this morning as we were getting ready. Sylvia locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn’t come out for an hour until Shannon coaxed her out with promises to let Sylvia drag her around gothic clothes shops and make her try on hundreds of long black dresses. Eventually Sylvia agreed and opened the door, her mascara streaked with tears.

Luckily TJ said he knew a guy who could help out. He called this ‘mate’ of his who drove around immediately and dropped off the two projectors. Out of the corner of my eye I saw TJ slip him some money from the petty cash box. We made eye contact and I nodded, quickly and solemnly. The end justifies the means. We set up the projectors and got everything ready just as the doors were about to open.

Today has been well advertised so we had a huge turnout. There were people spilling out of the Council hall and into the main foyer; dozens of adolescents keen to skip school so they could watch movies all day. We had to cordon off the area, giving the receptionists a valid excuse to stop work and join in the fun.

The only real hiccup was that one of the projectors stuffed up halfway trough the very first screening; the machine literally fell apart. TJ had to call up his ‘mate and slip him more of our funding to replace it with another one, seemingly from their unlimited supply of projectors. When the same thing happened twice more I began to get suspicious, and decided to tail the guy. When I followed him outside I was surprised to see the cloaked guy from the day before, leaning against the guy’s van, watching the door from underneath his hood. When he saw me he scampered.

I went back into the library to talk to Boudecia and let her know what was going on. I swiped my card at the staffroom entry and stepped into the back office, but there was no-one in sight. I heard a frightened SQUEAK! then a scurrying of claws and a HOOT, all coming from around the corner. I knew what this was, and walked, albeit trepidly, towards the gnawing sound coming from the shadows in the corner. As I approached one shadow lengthened impossibly fast, and after a moment out stepped Boudecia. She had a tail sticking out of her mouth, which she sucked in quickly and swallowed.

Ignoring the fact that my boss had just transformed from owl to human and devoured a mouse, not necessarily in that order, I pressed on and told her what I’d seen. She nodded sternly and said she would have a word to TJ about using the correct suppliers next time. He was really gonna get it later. I made my excuses and left the staffroom as soon as I could. I’ve seen Boudecia change shape before and it doesn’t shock me as much as it used to (hey, the library is also full of ghosts), but she just gives me the shivers sometimes.

Anyway, I won’t let that dampen my mood. Today we had a really awesome turn out and all I had to do was watch movies. This is the life!

-Jay