#65 Wednesday

Dear diary,

Happy National Simultaneous Storytime Day! Today was the day when young children all across Australia enjoyed the simple pleasure of having stories read to them. We had that running at our library, with the Children’s Librarian, Pepper, reading picture books to the little tikes for the whole day. She kept her youthful audience captivated with tales of fantasy, merriment, joy, and why hygiene is very important especially when it comes to nasal cleaning.

Of course, it would have been impossible for Pepper to read for the entire day, so every so often Heb took over for a story whilst she went and calmed down. Heb had a drink bottle, towel and bucket for Pepper to spit in, all on standby as she pushed through the books one by one. On her breaks Pepper kept nicking out onto the patio outside the staff room so she could have a quick cigarette (she took up smoking today), as well as what I will swear in court was just a hit of icing sugar. She always came out looking quite cheerful and giddy, and I’ll be damned if I let myself believe it was anything but good old saccharine bliss.

Both Pepper and Heb did an amazing job of keeping those kids both seated and enthralled, something which must have involved walking a very fine line. Often Heb would mime along to the stories whilst Pepper read them in her melodic, sing-song voice. The littlies loved it, dozens of them shifting forward to get closer to the heart of the action. Bron and I waited on standby in case a story required more characters. Bron was looking on with a glisten of pride in her eye as she watched how her son Hebron was playing with the kids, making sure they all joined in and had fun.

Pepper read more than books than I can remember, but here are my favourite ones. She read the tale of Konker the Krazy Klown who ran a circus which was so much fun that nobody ever left. She told the story of the Three Monkey Sisters who wore pretty tutus and loved to sing songs about why the government should invest more money in environmental sustainability. She recited a poem by Dr Seuss, which no-one over the age of 5 could understand. She chanted a ditty about how you should love your family no matter what. Bron and I joined in for this one, with Bron pretending to be Pepper’s lesbian wife.

All this story-telling and singing was exhausting, and after 6 hours – once all the children had been dragged away by their parents, all the while screaming for an encore – we all collapsed into the beanbags in the Children’s Area of the library. Pepper passed around a hip flask; Heb had one sip, smiled and fell asleep. Whilst Pepper lay and drank herself into a well-deserved stupor, I began the arduous task of cleaning up. All the tables had been upturned to be used as pirate ships, and the chairs had been stacked up high in a mock attempt to reach the sun. I carefully disassembled this OH&S nightmare and took dragged the excess pieces of furniture to the store cupboard.

When I got to it, however, I noticed that the lock was missing. Confused, I searched for it, eventually finding it shattered under one of the shelving tiers. When I opened the cupboard door I noticed immediately – it’s not that big a cupboard – that the broken remains of S.I.R. were gone. Pepper stumbled over and gasped, before grinning boozily in my face and falling onto me. I turned my head to the side so she wouldn’t accidentally kiss me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a black cape swishing: the same one I kept seeing. I tried to see more, but with a schmoozed, snoring librarian on top of me I couldn’t do much.

I slumped Pepper off me and carried her back to a comfy beanbag which would act as her bed for the time being. When I turned back the cape and its wearer had vanished. Ah well. It’s probably nothing. I have more important things to think about this week. We’re not even halfway through Library Week, and there are many more event is store for you. Until tomorrow, farewell!

-Jay