The Library - A Story imagined from a book title

This is also from our Writing Group on Friday, February 01, 2019. Writing exercises in our writing group are always entertaining. This month we had choices for our ten minute exercise. The first was to write from the title of a book we are reading - but it couldn’t be about the same premise. The second choice was to write from a picture ~ in this case a framed book cover of five brawny, feline looking aliens in front of a young blond gentleman, apparently the author of the sci-fi book. The stories of the aliens were great. Had the six of us laughing and laughing. I was the only one to choose a book title. The book I chose is The Library by Susan Orlean about the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire that destroyed many books and part of the library. A fascinating read and I definitely wrote something completely different. Libraries over history have performed a great service to citizens of all countries. It intrigued me to write about it. I’ve formatted it and fixed a typo here and there, but otherwise it is unchanged. Here is The Library

The Library - long hand in 10 minutes

The library creaked and groaned to a stop beneath an ancient old oak tree. The team of dark grey workhorses snuffled and stomped with much gratitude at the their reprieve. They could smell fresh water and hear a gently flowing river. Manes unfurled as their massive heads tossed in expectation. 

‘Now you boys be patient’ Anabel came down from the drivers seat on the old moving library. Dressed in long gray women skirt and an dusty orange buckskin too big for her, she seemed as old as the library. Getting two buckets from under the library she brought Ben and George their water and fed them the last of the oats. 

‘I’ll get you more when we get to town once the children have had time to get their books. They get almost as impatient as you do but they’re always respectful.’ 

Anabel had been driving her library across the dry plains and through small valleys for fifteen years. She never felt alone as long as she had her faithful grays pulling her wagon and the joyful faces of children. Some of the children had grown and were taking high school classes so she didn’t see them as often. But always one of them would come to her and ask for a book for some project they worked on. Sometimes she was given books in some of the larger towns she went through always keeping her library stocked. It was a journey that Anabel loved.

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, 

is the location of the library.”

Attributed to Albert Einstein