Katerina is in one of the back rooms of the library. She can hear the rustle of newspapers and the beep of the issue machines from the front part of the library, where the books and people and issue desks are, but she can't see them.
And they can't see her. Which is the point.
Katerina applied for a job on the front desk. She bought a new dress for the interview. She bought new lipstick. She had her hair done. And it worked. They gave her a job.
But it wasn't the one she wanted. Instead of sitting pretty at the counter (pretty was the problem - the county council are face-fascists, and everyone knows it) they put her at a desk under a dirty window in a back room behind a big row of shelves stacked high with new books. It only took her an hour to learn her new job.
Katerina has to stick the barcodes into the front of the new books. When she's done that, she puts a little bit of sellatape over the front of the bar-code. When she's done that, she puts the book on a trolley. When the trolley is full she wheels it to the next desk, where Bob sits. Bob does something else with them. She doesn't know exactly what.
Katerina is bored. She turns her monitor off and checks her teeth in its blank reflective surface. She flicks a rubber band at the back of Bob's head, which is red and bare and obscene looking.
Bob. Bob. Bob. She says.
Bob turns around.
Isn't that new guy starting today?
Bob shrugs and lets the air coming out of his nose sound like a shrugging noise. He turns back to his computer. Katerina leans around her desk.
Bob is googling for 'naked librarians' again.
No comments:
Post a Comment