Chapter 48: Little Lion man / Not a chapter

Things were moving too quickly for Jeffrey to be comfortable. He was a middle aged man who was in the body of his younger self. However for the most part, Jeffrey was treating it as if it wasn't real.

At some level, Jeffrey knew it couldn't be happening. The thought of being a robot, a hapless soul stuck in the matrix, or just someone that didn't exist.

Jeffrey escaped to the library, the familiar smell of paper books was a comforting smell. It was pleasant seeing his family and friends. However, the feeling that he didn't belong kept getting stronger.

Some sort of cognitive dissonance or imposter syndrome made him unable to cope or accept that what he did was meaningful.

Taking a moment Jeffrey started looking for a story, a story to get lost in. Like the many stories he read, he saw a fascinating title. "Cold Cereal Saga", by Adam Rex, nearby were other childhood titles he read like Frank Cottrel Boyce's "Cosmic" and "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer.

Jeffrey took a moment to breath, holding the books in his hands once more he opened the hardback cover. A familiar checkout card was on the first page, the various publishers and words that didn't seem to change.

"Perhaps it didn't matter, since the stories here were the same", Jeffrey's random thoughts were appearing in his head.

Suddenly Jeffrey could hear the squeaking sound of the wheels of a book cart. There was someone humming.

*mm* *hmm* *hmm* *hmmm* the school librarian was placing the books on the bookshelves.

No Fear Shakespeare (A midnight summers dream), Brian Selznick "Hugo Cabret", Divergent, Freakling, The Hunger Games, and around 15 books sat on the metal cart.

It was his old librarian Mrs. Lavery. Jeffrey had a good relationship with many of his school librarians. His love of books and stories made him a frequent visitor in the quiet areas that most kids avoided.

A sense of Déjà vu came over Jeffrey. Earlier that week one of the phrases he saw in the french-english dictionary (Canadian version) was the sentence, "C'est du déjà vu."

Jeffrey shook his head trying to find a sense of calm. Finding a cushy purple bean bag, Jeffrey started flipping pages of the barely used book he had in his hands.

The room was mostly a still silence, except for the shuffling of papers when Mrs. Lavery was at her desk. She often spent most of her time in a separate room, doing things out of sight.

Jeffrey sat for quite a while as the sun's rays shone through the window. The particles of dust gently floating in the air before landing on the tops of the wooden bookshelves.

Rarely the doors to the library would open as one kid or another came to check out books. The school library was not a popular place for kids, as most would go visit the basketball courts or soccer field.

Jeffrey's heavy backpack full of Oobleck jars was getting to heavy for his small shoulders.

All his time relaxing however had given him a sense of peace, although that could quite easily change if he wanted to.

Jeffrey remembered how a few kids would store their projects in a classroom or the P.E. storeroom before school. Perhaps he could have a stockpile for the jars of Oobleck they had produced for the science project.

Jeffrey walked up to the old librarian's desk. The table had seen better days, but it was still holding on. In a few years, it would probably turn into a computer lab. Where kids played flash games, io multiplayer and Roblox.

____

uh...

Jeffrey remembered the time he spent on sites like Funbrain, Coolmathgames, Miniclip and Kongregate. Other sites like, Poptropica, Penguin Dash (Island Nurger & Wildcat games) and Club penguin were classics. There were also obscure one's like Dinosaur Run, Commando (run & gun), Andkon Arcade, Little Wheel, Sift Heads, Sniper Year 4, Little Bear Adventures, Bubble Tank Arena, Thing Thing 4, Stickman sam, Armor games, Addicting, Crazy Monkey, Bubble Box , Pencil Kids, Whiteboard wars, Bowja the Ninja, Mech Quest & Adventure Quest (artix), Browser Quest on firefox.

Lemonade Stand, Papa's Pizzeria, Nitrome, Wizard 101.

PBS, cartoon network, the hub, disney games, extreme pamplona, raze, blockhead, hex empires, jelly battles

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"Hello there, Jeffrey", the school librarian Mrs. Lavery greeted him.

"It's always nice to see you again", Mrs. Lavery approached her computer and started scanning the library books in his hands.

Mrs. Lavery placed the keypad in front of him.

Jeffrey typed in his school ID, "53596"

This was the school ID he used to buy lunch, record his grades, and the same one he used to check out library books from his first day in 1st grade to his graduation day in 8th grade.

He had so many memories with this number, the amount of pizza parties he had with the school principal, the school book fairs, and the school field trip lunches he got at the cafeteria.

Jeffrey soon returned to the present.

Mrs. Lavery said to him, "We're about to get a new batch of books during break. So don't forget to come back and check them out! I'm also preparing for the Caldecott and Newbury awards. If you're interested there's a small party for reading all of them"

Last year Animorphs, Holes by Louis Sacher, and the Unwanted by Lisa Mcmann were the winners.

However there were a lot of good books this year, from the Mysterious Benedict Society, Hieronymus Bosch "This Book is Not Good For You", and Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Jeffrey had finished, Alcatraz knights, A Glitch in Sleep, The Candymakers, the Candyshop Wars, Mr. Limoncello's Library. Jeffrey spent a lot of time exploring mysteries and dystopias before he got caught up in this science stuff.