#16 Restoration

Dear diary,

The library was closed to the public for four days. The windows have been boarded up, the phonelines down. Some disbelievers said that it will never reopen. But they were wrong. For inside the library we were busy repairing the damage that had been done. We worked day and night to get the library back to normal. Here are the notes I kept on our progress.

Tuesday, 5am

I was at home Monday night tending to my wounds when I heard a knock at he door. I wondered who would be calling by at midnight. It was Talia, dressed in a black suit and wearing dark sunglasses. Silently she motioned to the open passenger-side door of her car. I got in and she handed me a document. I read it while she drove, and when I'd finished I looked up at her and mouthed, "Emergency Shelving Procedures?"

We were the last to arrive at the back carpark of the library. Boudecia opened the door for us and we entered. The backroom had been spared from most of the damage. We slowly and silently made our way through the library to the front desk, stepping gingerly over fallen chairs and destoyed books. Pepper whimpered when she saw the state of the Junior section, the turrets we'd made less than a week ago now demolished.

Ernesto remained at the front desk, cradling his broken arm while helping Sylvia and I fix the downed in-house system. The other six went around the library collecting whatever misplaced books and other items they could find. I'm taking my break now, but they're all still out there salvaging what they can. I'll write more later.

Tuesday, 8:30pm

I'm at home now, just finishing dinner and waiting another 20 minutes before I have to get back to work. Boudecia swore us to secrecy about our mission, so I haven't told my parents anything. It's been such a busy day. Sylvia and I managed to fix the in-house system, and slowly but surely Ernesto got the computers to come back on. That was at 4pm. We then restored the shelves to their proper places, and now we've got what Goldie called the "skeleton of the library".

Wednesday, 4pm

The sorting process is taking FOREVER and I just want to die! We've each taken a pile and been assorted to our own collections. Pepper gets Junior, TJ has Teenage, all DVDs and videos go to Sylvia, Bron controls Community Languages, Talia's taken Magazines, Biographies are Ernesto's, Goldie monopolises Paperbacks, Boudecia warrants Large Print, and any Fiction is my realm. We pass on anything misplaced to the right person, and Non-Fiction and Reference are thrown into a massive pile for later.

Sounds simple in theory, but not quite so in practice. Goldie and I have been swapping back and forth because it seems like no-one can tell the difference between Fiction and Paperback. It gets really frustrating when you finally complete a tier full of books only to realise half of them aren't meant to be there. I do it all the time accidentally when I normally shelve, but now it's really getting to me.

Thursday, 6pm

Once all respective sections had been finished we all moved on to on-Fiction. Morale was pretty low as we'd had to throw ot so many books which had been damaged. TJ farewelled any John Marsdens and Bron had to saya rueful goodbye to some Harry Potters in both French and Chinese, but the saddest thing was when I found Talia crying over the destruction of all the Rolling Stones. Boudecia, in a rare contradiction of OHS procedures, lit a funeral pyre for them in a wastepaper basket inside the library.

Then Pepper devised a plan to cheer us up. She got each of us "young ones" (i.e. those under thirty) to grab a trolley and race to shelve a part of Non-Fiction. She took bets from everyone on who would win out of myself, Talia, TJ and Sylvia. The four of us stood ready at the starting line as Bron stepped out with a checkered flag. She waved, and we were off.

I was the first to reach my destination at 613. I began shelving like I've neer shelved before. I could see TJ hurrying to catch up to me at 745 but he was out of practice. He used to be a shelver but had been out of practice since being promoted to library officer. When I completed my tier I ran back to the fornt desk for my second load, only to see Talia running off with hers. It turned out to be a very close match, with the two of us neck and neck right up until the very end before she got ahead.

Friday, 3pm

It's finally over. Boudecia was given the honour of placing the last book on the shelf, a symbolic gesture as meaningful as cutting the red tape. It was a bit of an anticlimax as we were all so exhausted and just wanted to go home. When I did get home I collapsed on my bed and slept for hours. I think I'll call in sick tomorrow - I've done enough overtime to make up for it. Good night.