Kelly Nagle
Kelly is a real-life librarian, and holds the amazing distinction of having
created the newsgroup alt.food.ice-cream during her first
week on the Internet.
Before discovering the internet, she was co-editor of the brilliant but
largely forgotten underground satirical newspaper Head
Express, which folded after two issues.
Kelly would now like to share a traditional folktale that is beloved by
librarians all over the world. It was written by her friend
Claire Morga and it is called:
The Little Librarian and the Magic Books
Once upon a time there was a little librarian. Her name was Claire. She was
very slim and hardly ever wore glasses. The little
librarian lived in a little library in a little town and all the townspeople
visited the library to borrow the wondrous books there.
One day a new shipment of books arrived. The little librarian quickly opened
the box and soon noticed that these were not
ordinary books. They had pages of gold with silver lettering; the spines
were covered with jewels; the illustrations were by
Monet and Renoir. But, the most special thing -- the books were MAGIC.
Well, the little librarian immediately sent a newsletter to the townspeople
to tell them the good news and soon they gathered at
the library to see the new books.
"May we borrow them?" cried the patrons. "Well, okay, but only for seven
days," said the little librarian. "It's very important that
you return them on time. Remember, the due date is one week from today." So
the patrons went home with their treasures and
as the days passed, each thought how wonderful it would be to keep such a
book and not return it to the library. Each began to
devise a tall tale to tell the librarian.
On the seventh day, the little librarian opened the library bright and early
and anxiously waited for the magic books to be
returned. But, as the hours passed, none of the townspeople appeared. It was
getting later and later, but still no one came. As
the closing hour drew near, the little librarian decided to telephone each
patron and remind them to bring the magic books back
to the library. But, with each call, she heard another strange story.
"I was sitting by my window, reading, when suddenly a strong gust of wind
blew the book out the window and I never saw it
again."
"My house burned to the ground and the book was destroyed."
"My dog ate the book."
"I already returned the book. It was on Tuesday. I remember distinctly,
Tuesday at 2 o'clock."
Oh, the little librarian was so unhappy. She said aloud, "I wish my magic
books would be returned!" At that very moment,
something strange started to happen all over town. The townspeople picked up
their books but could not put them down. The
books were stuck. "What shall we do?", they cried, "We must ask the
librarian what to do."
Well, it was almost closing time at the library and as the little librarian
went to the front door to lock up, she could not believe
her eyes. All the townspeople were running towards the library. They had
books stuck all over them. What a sight!
The little librarian was so happy to see all her books. And, as she touched
each one it magically came loose. The townspeople
were happy too.
The little librarian gathered all the books and was putting them back on the
shelves as the people began to leave. But a
policeman was waiting for them to take them to jail where they would be
executed at dawn and their souls would burn in hell
forever.
The End.
Kelly Nagle = [log in to unmask]
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