THE LIBRARY

The first place Emma visited the next day after eating a good healthy diet of Marshmallows and a great deal of beefsteak mixed with leafy juicy vegetables as well as few mackerels morsels that served as her breakfast soon after she got herself ready to leave her home for the day in a simple outfit as well as her handbag, was the city's public library located within the central region of the city but she had to keep a low profile without getting too much attraction from anyone who could have noticed her during the day, the major reason why she didn't drive her car like the previous times she had to hide herself from being seen by her colleagues at her workplace in broad daylight in order to confine her movements within the central area of the city away from the radar near her workplace. Her cell phone had rang several times in the morning and had been the causative factor for waking her up very early from sleep in the morning before sunrise. She hitched a twenty seven kilometers drive from her domain, in a taxi, to her destination after she locked the front door of her house, which conveyed her straight to the library in no less than sixty-five minutes drive from a bus stop around the next block close to her abode. As soon as the taxi driver dropped her off by the pavement in front of the entrance of the library and left in a hurry the moment he received his fare, she noticed that nothing much about the exterior outlook of the library center had changed ever since it got renovated two weeks ago like she had seen in the news reported on a live broadcast to the public by the mayor and didn't want to upset the female library keeper with her nosy observation though she knew her personally to be Mrs. Tina, an old lady in her sixties with spooky glasses resting on her narrow nose, who often sat on an office chair situated adjacent to the entrance, behind a desk crowded with books and files piped up her desk around a black mainframe desktop computer fixed on the desk for her to carry out some payworks with the help of a black keyboard.

Apart from the librarian, A few other persons interested in book reading were already present in the gigantic spacious hall of the library and were completely engaged in reading some of the hefty books of different sizes that was neatly arranged in the unending number of shelves present in the interior of the colossal hall and had secluded themselves to one side of the hall in order to study on what they left their homes to read at the very early hours of the day while two persons were having a private discussing at the lounge areas as well as tables at the midsection of the hall but they had to obey the instructions of the old librarian to keep their voice down, not to make any unnecessary noise that would disturb the focus other readers like Mrs. Tina as well including the tranquil atmospheric silence of the hall.

The old library keeper was quite focused in the usual routine of getting her paperwork done as quickly as possible and was typing on the keyboard with both of her fingers, continuously nonstop when Emma walked into the hall with her handbag dangling one side of her shoulder, through the front door which was opened despite having painted her long nails pink the other day at a salon shop.

On her way out of the sunbaked streets outside into the building, she had walked past two young men exiting the building with so many books and presumed that they must have borrowed a lot of books after leaving behind their contact address and phone landlines for the old librarian to keep a good correspondence with the cops if ever they failed to return the exact number of borrowed books they took to wherever they had planned to go that morning.

Emma got close enough to the librarian to get enough glances at the countless wrinkles on the saggy cheeks of the old lady looking at the computer screen with more attention than usual without noticing that she had another guest visiting the library for the fifth time in the month of July. Due to the fact that it was daytime, the electric lights inside the hall was switched off, allowing the hot sunlight to produce its natural radiation upon the four corners of the colossal hall almost crowded with tall column shelves ranging from one side of the to nextthat nearly touched the roofs though a little gap in the middle was left for readers to sit down to enrich their minds with widespread information contained in the books according to the lists of what they had taken from the huge collection of books in different sizes based on the written and compiled publication of such works.

"Good morning, ma'am",

Emma greeted with a childish smile of a teenager, beaming radiantly across her face the moment she arrived at the desk of the librarian but she didn't get the kind of response from the old woman she was expecting.

"And to you, too. young lady. How may I help you?",

Mrs. Tina bluntly replied, fixing her eyes more firmly on the desktop screen as her fingers kept making fast clicking sounds on the keyboard and adjusted her spectacle without her looking at Emma, to fit the top of her nose. Emma was a bit disappointed to see that she didn't respond to her like last time she paid a visit to the library somedays back but she didn't relent and kept standing there with the hope that she would wake herself up from her engrossing work.

"Come on, Mrs. Tina. It's me Emma",

"Oh! Pardon me, dear. I didn't notice that you were standing there",

Mrs. Tina retorted snapping out of her engrossed engagement and wanted to get up from her seat but Emma gestured at her not to do that.

"Don't worry, ma'am. You got a lot of things to handle",

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. It's really hard getting this paperwork done before tomorrow",

Mrs. Tina answered, and sank back into the chair to get some rest from her typing and at the same, to attend to Emma who felt pity for her since she knew that the old librarian had been getting weaker and her present looks was more pale with weariness possibly because of lack of sleep, than the last time she saw her in the hall but she undeniably figured that it her poor health and her weakness had to do with the fact that she was aging more rapidly as the time progresses. Emma noticed some tiny strands of whitening hair growing just above her forehead amidst the grey ones that she neatly tied to the back of her head.

"I'm sorry that I can't be of any assistance to your work",

Emma mumbled out unconsciously, feeling the guilt of not being able to assist her bearing hard on her even though she wanted to.

"It's fine. There's no need for you to apologize, my dear. I've been getting a lot weaker this days but never mind about me",

"Okay, I won't if you say so",

"I haven't seen you coming around in a while now, did you run into some trouble of some sort?",

"Nope, nothing that I can't handle",

She lied.

"You sure about that?",

"Pretty sure, Mrs. Tina"

"Okay, I won't pry then. So, what brings you here to the library this early in the morning?",

Mrs. Tina questioned, with her fingers crossed in midair whilst her elbows touched the top of the desk.

"I came to check out something if I could find it in here in the library",

"What is that if I may ask? Is it a book or a journal?",

"I am not sure of the details yet but have you ever heard of a place called Raza?",

"Raza?"

"Yeah. Sounds crazy right?",

"Perhaps but it does sound familiar to me. I can't remember where I've heard it from",

Mrs. Tina said checking her vague memory of something that struck but a lot of things had kept her mind busy from recalling clearly.

"Maybe if I take a look around, I might get something",

"Good idea. Let me help you look for it",

"No thanks, Mrs. Tina. I already know my way around here",

"You sure you'll find it on your own, dear?",

"Yes, I will. I've been here a couple of times. So, I know the place to search for it",

"Alright, you wouldn't listen to me anyway if I asked you to let me help you out. It's okay but just in case you don't get what you are looking for, there's a computer behind the last shelf over there. You can use to search the internet for wherever that place is",

The old librarian pointed directly at the exact shelf containing a lot of bigger books than the other ones with her forefinger at the far left corner of the hall above the heads of few individuals and Emma followed the pointer with her eyes, gazing at the last shelf at the end of the room.

"Thanks for the heads up, ma'am",

Emma said and wanted to head further but she stopped halfway as soon as the old librarian called her back.

"You're welcome but remember —",

"Emma, Emma Williamson",

She retorted and turned around to face Mrs. Tina once again.

"Oh! I forgot your name, how silly of me. Anyway, Remember not to make any noise that will disturb those reading inside",

"Yeah, I'll try to keep it down",

"Okay, that's all. You can go ahead with what you want to do and don't hesitate to ask for help if you need anything",

"Absolutely",

Emma replied and walked away from her, heading towards the gigantic column shelves and maneuvered her way to the maze of huge shelves seventy eight meters high above her head, searching for any historical information related to the what she had asked the librarian few moments ago.