Loaners

 Early this year, I got my first library card. My own, not my mother's, from the big fancy Broome County Library. Don't get me wrong, I love the library I grew up in, Huntington Memorial back home in Oneonta, but this one was just… it was a museum of books.

I couldn't wait to go and explore every few weeks.

And then the pandemic hit and I haven't been back.

The pandemic is scary and the world is scary and I don't want to write about it. But the same time, I kept thinking about that library, about the books. About how lonely they must have been with no one to read them, having no idea what was happening or if people were ever coming back.

Loaners does not directly mention the pandemic, and it could be about any large scale crisis at any point in time. There's no mention of the misery and chaos the pandemic has caused, except in the apocalyptic speculation of some of the books that fear humanity has gone extinct. But still, I offer a content warning: though this story is one of hope and perseverance and survival, it is very much about the worldwide pandemic I hoped would be over before this story found publication.

My stories are weird and dark sometimes, but almost always hopeful. When I wrote this, I was also weird and dark but hopeful. I had hoped this story wouldn't be relevant by the time it was published. And in a way, it isn't. The world is opening up again. The library books aren't lonely anymore. But it isn't over, not even close. 

Loaners is available in Sunshine Superhighway in paperback and digital.