#19 Exorcism

Dear diary,

Boudecia's still missing; no-one has been able to contact her. I'm thinking her disppearance has something to do with the recent problem with the system. When it crashed I immediately blamed the poltergeist, because of its mischievous warning. Unfortunately I hadn't been able to confirm my theory for a couple of reasons: (a) no-one else besides Talia believes it even exists, and (b) it hasn't shown up since then. It's difficult to interrogate an invisible, noncorporeal phantasm which may or may not be real in between shelving. Trust me.

Just as I'd pushed it to the back of my mind, it appeared again. I was in No Man's Land, that awkward empty space between Fiction and Non-Fiction, when three books whipped off the Fiction trolley:

HAV ING FUN

"Go away, I've had enough of your jokes. They're just not funny," I whispered angrily, with strains of weariness and fear in my voice. Some hunger too, as I'd skipped lunch and was really not in the mood for games.

WHY NOT

"Just, because." Wow, how lame.

JEE ZUN FUN

"You brought down the system! It took me and Sylvia hours to repair it! You caused hundreds of dollars worth of damage! Get out of here before I throw the book at you!"

SYL VIA AND I

I gathered up the growing pile of Fiction books on the floor, including the misplaced Paperback, all the while muttering to myself. I wouldn't let it get the better of me, not this time. I marched to the front desk and dumped the books noisily on the check-in counter, causing Ernesto to take notice. He stared at me weirdly. I mumbled "poltergeist was reading these" and strode back to my trolley, getting angrier all the time. When I got back to Fiction I found books strewn all over the floor.

LIL BAB YUP SET BUT SYS TEM STU FUP NOT MYN

A man and his son tippie-toed over the mess. The father looked at me and shook his head, dismayed that I'd let the library come to ruin. That was the last straw. I shrieked furiously and grabbed specific books off the shelf.

HOW ZAT YAS

I was about to finish my sentence with a Colleen Hitchcock novel when Ernesto appeared. He had changed into a ceremonial red robe and donned a priest's skullcap. I dropped the book out of embarrassment.

"Last time you said you'd seen a poltergeist I asked you to get a glass of water. Best you go do that now."

I ran to the staffroom and poured myself a glass. Pity it wasn't vodka, because I'd really have liked a shot at that moment. With glass in hand I returned to find Ernesto chanting and holding forth a crosier which had come out of nowhere. Books were flying around him, but he was in the eye of the storm and therefore untouched. As the literary wind picked up speed, a solitary folio flew out and landed at my feet. I saw Ernesto mouth the word "read", so I did.

F 060.77105 IND

"Find what?" I called out, but my words were lost in the whirlwind. He looked and me and said "turn". Placing the glass on the table I slowly inverted the book and read the second part of the message in the Dewey number.

"Soil logo? What the? Where's that?" I called out. Ernesto shrugged, his attention clearly focused on controlling the tempest brewing inside the library. Suddenly it dawned on me. I ducked into the 800s, making a beeline for poetry. I dropped to my knees and found my target: the small cairn Ernesto and I had erected in memory of a former shelver. I drew in breath then exhaled, blowing the rubbish everywhere. The wind died instantaneously.

Ernesto and I sat in the armchairs. He looked exhausted. We sat for a while in silence efor I asked him what had happened. He motioned to the glass of water, which had turned a purple colour.

"In there now. Vengeful spirit we created. Defeated by an old man and a shelver. Balance restored."

We got up and walked to the staffroom with the glass of ghostly water. I watched as he poured it down the sink, gone forever. It had been a pest, I'll give it that, but the last thing the poltergeist said was that it didn't cause the system to crash. If that's true, then who or what did?