“Is it still open?” wondered Garrett.
“Yes,” the girl nodded and held out her hand.
Garrett watched the girl’s unwavering intense gaze, trying to figure out what she was doing. She jabbed forward twice with her outstretched hand, palm up, and Garrett finally got the message. The little girl was begging. Digging inside his pockets, he searched for some money, hoping that he had some trecins somewhere. Garrett might have been a little suspicious, but he wasn’t one to rip off a little kid.
His fingers brushed against a few coins and he tugged them out, dropping three trecins into the girl’s outstretched hand. Without a word, the girl simply turned and left, clutching the money tightly in her fist.
Puzzled by the lack of the girl’s reaction, Garrett turned his eyes to the library and wondered if he’d just been ripped off. But at least the sign in the front yard said Darrington Library. She had led him to a library.
Walking down the pathway to the library with the dead grass on either side of it, he opened the door and peered inside. The entire first floor was shrouded in darkness and gave him an eerie feeling. Yet, light filtering from the second story beckoned him onward and up the creaky wooden steps. The tenth one gave a little. Afraid it would break, he skipped it and leaped to the last stair. The light came from the left down a narrow space between rows of bookshelves. Pacing toward the light, he found a young woman holding a lamp over the book she was reading.
“Oh,” she jumped when she saw him and scrambled to her feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you coming.”
“It’s okay,” reassured Garrett, shocked at the woman’s reaction.
“Can I help you find anything?”
“Do you work here?”
She nodded, tucking a loose strand of her chestnut brown hair behind her ear. “Yes, I do.”
“Why are all the lights off?”
“Oh, well, when no one is here we try to keep the lights off to save energy. Wait here one moment while I turn them on.”
Before Garrett could say anything, the young woman disappeared into the darkness. Within seconds, a bright, warm, yellow glow lit the entire room. Bookcases upon bookcases became visible, lining every wall and most of the space in-between.
As Garrett admired the scope of reading material, the girl returned. “There, that’s better.”
In the full light of the room, Garrett could see that she wasn’t more than a year or two older than him. Big caramel-colored eyes were deep-set in a round face with high cheekbones. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and ended just beyond the nape of her neck.
A little taken aback at her beauty, he stammered for the second time that day. “Uh…uh…I’m looking for a particular book that I heard you might have in your collection here.”
The young woman’s eyebrows rose. “Oh really, what book would that be?”
“Well, I um…don’t know the name of it, but it’s about The Council.”
“The Council?” The girl pinched her lips together in thought. “I’m not sure if I’ve heard of such a book.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, if we have any books on them, it would be in one place.” Spinning around, she started to walk away, but stopped and looked over her shoulder to add, “Oh, and I’m April by the way. What’s your name?”
“Garrett.”
“Nice to meet you, Garrett. If you’d please follow me.”
Happy to have help without being charged or tormented, Garrett followed her to the corner of the room where a spiral staircase led to the third floor. Once up there, he couldn’t help sneezing. Dust clung to every surface, nook, and cranny. April seemed to be unaffected by it and strode straight over to a bookshelf nestled by one of the windows.
“If there are any books about The Council, they would be on this shelf.” Squatting down to start reading from the bottom shelf, her eyes darted back and forth as she quickly read the titles. Rising to her full height, she pulled one down off the shelf. “This one might contain the information you seek.”
Garrett reached out to take the book from her, glancing down at its thick red cover. There was no title on the front, only on the spine. It appeared that it had been smoothed over at some point like someone had rubbed it until it wore away.
“I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything, I’ll be downstairs on the second floor.”
“Okay, thank you,” muttered Garrett.
Pausing, April twisted back around and asked, “If you don’t mind my asking, why do you want to read a book about The Council?”
Shaken from his own thoughts, Garrett looked at her perplexed. “I just want to know more about them, that’s all.”
“To better prepare your Life Plan?” wondered April, her head downcast and voice barely above a whisper.
Garrett forgot about his mission for a moment and glanced over at April. Her head was still downcast, eyes focused on the floor. “You knew that I am from the Decided sector?”
April solemnly nodded her head, still not looking up.
“But you treated me so kindly.”
“Well, just because I am where I am doesn’t mean I should be mean to others. At least that’s what I believe,” she explained.
Garrett’s brow twitched into a frown for a moment, then smoothed. “You aren’t that much older than me. Couldn’t you have chosen to create a Life Plan?”
April nodded and finally met his gaze. Garrett was shocked to see tears glistening in her eyes. “I did…write my Life Plan...that is. I had it all figured out. I would be a scholar, learn everything I could about our world. I wanted to be a librarian and work to help others learn more too.”
“What happened? Why are you here?”
“I was born into the Undecided. My
