February
The newest
member of staff at the Pipershaven Public Library was Collette Kane and when
she joined, she was a breath of fresh air around the place, she was a
University graduate and openly admitted that she had only taken the job at the
Library until she decided what she wanted to do with her life.
Collette was
the antithesis of Chief Librarian Abbie Beach, for a start she did not dress in
the subdued manner that Abbie did, she was an explosion of colours and styles,
and her hair seldom stayed the same colour more than a week at a time, nor was
she mousy or private, she was loud and proud, and you always knew when she was
around.
The one thing
they did have in common though was their love of the printed word, they were
both well read and shared an encyclopedic knowledge of books, so despite the
differences of age style and demeanour, they formed a rather unlikely
friendship, a friendship the deepened immensely after she managed to play match
maker between Abbie and her uncle Carl.
As a result,
Abbie and Carl, decided to return the favour and she had just the candidate.
Jamie Collier
was a Teacher at St Agatha’s Primary School in Pepperstock Green and he was a
regular visitor to the Library, and it didn’t take too long for Chief
Librarian, Abbie Beach to figure out that it wasn’t just the books that were
attracting him, and Collette always seemed particularly attentive to him above
all other patrons.
It was after
she had received a letter from the Council announcing a number of joint
initiatives between the council and other public and private bodies, one of
which was the local education authority who wanted to do something between a
local school and the Library for World Book Day.
It was
something that had been marked by the Schools for a number of years and the
Library also had a special program of events for the occasion.
But this year
it was proposed that they should do something together, which Abbie thought was
a great idea, especially provided she could get the correct Schools involved.
Abbie took it
upon herself to arrange for St Agatha’s Primary to be nominated, and as the
Headteacher was her next-door neighbour it wasn’t too difficult, once that was
arranged, she then suggested that Jamie Collier could liaise with the Library
staff on the planning as he was already a regular visitor and was well known by
all the Librarians.
With that
agreed all that was left to do was persuade Collette to be the Library’s
representative.
“You want me to
do it?” she asked
“Yes” Abbie
replied
“But I’ve never
done anything like that before, and I’ve not been here for long, what will the
Librarians with more experience than me think about it” she pointed out “No, no
I can’t do it”
“I know you
haven’t done anything like it before, but then none of the staff have, so no
one has more or indeed less experience for the task than you do” Abbie said
“and you are a human dynamo with more natural enthusiasm than anyone I have
ever known”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure”
Abbie assured her “And you won’t be alone, Jamie Collier from St Agatha’s
Primary will work closely with you on the arrangements, and there will be no
shortage of help when you need it”
After being
persuaded Collette worked very closely with Jamie, who was not asked if he
would do it, he was given no choice, which he was unhappy about until he
realised who he was going to be liaising with.
On the morning
of World Book Day Jamie rose very early and although he was pleased to have
been entrusted with the job, he was more than a little nervous, well in truth
he was terrified, and he was pleased that he would not be enduring the ordeal
alone and would be sharing the experience with Librarian Collette Kane.
He treated
himself to an extra close shave, a much closer one than usual in order to
accommodate the beard, and as a result when he applied the aftershave it stung
so much that he thought his face was on fire.
He arrived at
the Library, red faced but sweet smelling to find Collette fussing around
uncharacteristically.
She was already
in her Snow-White costume, and he thought she looked gorgeous.
“Hey” he said
“You’re cutting
it fine” Collette said crossly
“There’s plenty
of time” he retorted
“There’s still
so much to do” she barked
He was going to
say “Ok just calm down” but when he saw the look on her face he thought better
of it and instead, he said
“Everything is
in hand”
“Look Mr.
Collier, it’s not just another day you know, we’re doing something really
special” she said “it’s important for the children so it’s got to be done
right”
Just then the
Chief Librarian came through the door behind him
“Hello
Professor” she said brightly
“Hi Abbie” he
said, “Hey why aren’t you in costume?”
“Some of us
have had a very busy morning setting up” Abbie replied
“Talking of
costumes, go and get into yours” Collette said sharply
“This way”
Abbie said and led him away to one of the offices
“I never realized
that Snow White was so grumpy” he said
Abbie paused by
the doorway and let Jamie go ahead of her and said
“She just wants
everything to be perfect”
“Yes, she would
because she is perfect” he said absentmindedly, and Abbie smiled and then left
him in the office with the drama teacher from his school, Georgie Devereaux,
who handed him his costume.
“Get this on
and then I’ll help with your wig and beard, and do you face a bit”
“Ok” he said hesitantly
“Don’t worry I
do this for the amateur dramatics group” she reassured him
He didn’t vocalize
it, but he didn’t find the “Amateur” in her statement to be particularly
reassuring.
But he needn’t
have been worried as he looked very convincing as Professor Dumbledore when he
returned to the library proper, he saw Abbie again and this time she was in
costume, and he did a double take.
Abbie Beach was
the very epitome of the archetypal Librarian.
Her dark
greying hair was pulled back severely into a bun arrangement; she wore heavy
framed spectacles and dressed in black pinafore dress over a long-sleeved
blouse and black tights and wore sensible shoes.
She dressed
like that all year round, whatever the weather, the only variety being the
addition of a black or grey cardigan, in the depths of winter.
So, to see her
dressed as Wanda from Where’s Wally, took him a back.
Abbie was a
riot of red, white and blue with not a square inch of black on the whole
outfit.
“Wow” he said
“Liking the outfit”
“Me too” a
voice from behind him said, and when he turned around, he saw it was Postman
Pat, or more precisely Carl Fernandes, who was Abbie’s love interest.
“Hi Carl” he
said, “Are you wondering where the black outfit has gone too?”
“No, I was
wondering whether Wanda is wearing stockings or tights” he replied
“Behave
yourself” Abbie said
“On that note
I’ll go and track down Snow White” he said
The whole
Library had been decorated with coloured drapes festooned with images of
literary figures and the main area had been subdivided into a number of reading
circles, where the Librarian’s and Teachers would read stories, one was
dedicated to Harry Potter, another to Disney and another to Roald Dahl and so
on.
There was a
final meeting of costumed Librarian’s, Teachers and volunteers to run through
the schedule one last time, but Jamie wasn’t really paying attention as his
mind had wandered, as his eyes wandered over Collette dressed as Snow White and
he found her staggeringly sexy.
They finished
all the last-minute preparations and half the Children from Jubilee Primary
School arrived at 10 o’clock, and they looked amazing dressed as characters
from their favourite books.
Then they all
went off to the reading circle of their choice where someone would read to them
dressed as one of the characters, as Jamie was dressed as Dumbledore he read
from Harry Potter and Collette (Snow White) read from a Disney story book.
About an hour
into the event they had a surprise visit from Actress Louise Sexton, who was
performing at the Heartstone Theatre in town, and caused a great deal of
excitement, and then she relieved Jamie and read in his place.
After Lunch it
was the turn of the other half of the School children to join the fun, and they
were treated to a live reading from local Children’s Writer Chania Campbell who
read from her latest book “Wiccan Wendy”.
At the end of
the school day the parents began to arrive to collect the children and the
teachers returned to the school,
When Jamie had
escorted the last of his charges to the door and handed him over to his parents
he returned to the Disney reading circle where Snow White was tidying up and
asked
“Is that
definitely the last of them?”
“I think so,
I’ve checked under all the cushions” she replied and laughed
“But I suppose
we should check the stacks”
“Ok lead on” he
said
They wandered
up and down the rows of books and when they reached the end of the last stack
she said
“That’s
definitely all of them then”
“Excellent” he
sighed “I’m shattered”
“Me too” she
said and leant against him
“It’s been a
great day though”
“It has” he
agreed
“In fact, there
is just one thing that would make it better”
“Oh, what’s
that?” she asked looking up at him
“This” he said
as he leant down and kissed her expectant lips
After the
dispersal of the schoolchildren Abbie and Carl both needed to spend a penny and
when Carl exited the gents, he spotted the red and white striped legs of his
girlfriend by one of the stacks, and as he got closer, he saw that she was
peering through a gap between the reference books on one of the stacks.
“What are you
looking at, have you found Wally?” he asked
“Shush” she
said and put her finger to her lips “Come and have a look”
He tiptoed up
behind her and also peeked through the gap between the books and could see Snow
White snogging Dumbledore.
“Well, well” he
said “Just wait until her Prince Charming finds out about this”
“Oh, I think he already knows” Abbie said
