Library patrons have been extra weird this week. A woman came in and started crying, claiming she had been raped and left 6 miles away and had walked all the way to the library. That is serious, so I started asking questions. When did this happen? 3 months ago. Do you need an ambulance? No. Police? No, the police are rapists. Number for a shelter? No, they don't take dogs. Number for a social worker? No. Family I can call? No, they're all CRAZY. After rejecting every offer of help, she ran out screaming and crying, "I can't even get help AT THE LIBRARY!" I don’t know how I could have handled that differently. I tried. From what she was yelling, I think what she really wanted was a free ride across the island. Not in my car, lady.
Today a guy came in and got really pissed off about being asked for ID in order to get a library card, yelling about my coworker being a cop and doing background checks on him until I came out and told him to calm down or leave. He slammed his ID down and walked out, then came back in completely calm. Scary calm. Better than coming back in with a gun, though.
As soon as that guy was settled and reading a book, somebody drove by the library blaring their car horn. And then another, and another. They turned in at the driveway, and three cars had a horn-honking road-rage chase around the parking lot. I stood up on a chair to watch out the window. A big truck that was parked at the liquor store tried reversing into the road to block them, but they got through and chased each other out the back exit. A mom with two kids came in and saw me looking out the window. "They've been fighting all the way from Haleiwa, I was right behind them," she said. None of them stopped and got out to confront each other, probably because they know someone could get shot, so what’s the plan there? How did they see that ending? Drive around honking until they’re all friends?
What a waste of time and energy.
You see it all at the library. I would not be surprised if you didn't deliver a baby there one day.
ReplyDeleteGeeze and Holy crap. Such a day for dealing with "interesting" humans. I'm trying to be correct here and NOT use the term..."crazies." Oops, just did it. Sorry. It's baffling that your Library seems to be a hub of unrest and challenges. I plan on having a chat with our local beloved Librarians and see if they experience the same. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteYou make me feel nostalgic for the library in Rosebank, Johannesburg where I worked. We had the elderly homeless man (who was quite good looking) who used to come in every day and lock himself into the bathroom to get washed. He then sat in a strategically placed chair and used to glower at my colleague and myself for most of the day- rather disconcerting.One day he handed my colleague a letter demanding that both she and I stop stalking him; another used to swoop in, grab a few flyers off the desk and sit and write disgusting messages on them which he used to hide in books on the shelves, and then swoop out again.I have seen armed robbers making a getaway from the back of a truck, and tragically, seen a young man who had just shot himself while sitting in a car outside the library (he died in spite of emergency services resuscitation attempts); another man came in with a gun and waved it under the nose of a more aggressive librarian who had told him not to park in the library parking. I might add it didn't phase my colleague one jot. So many- and amongst it all- sweet, ordinary folks going about their business,many lonely people who came for a chat and to choose books , hard -up people who borrowed the maximum amount of books. Oh so many- i miss it!
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