Another Page Turned

First Half

The silent lecture hall resounds with tapping and scratching of chalk as it leaves a trail of white dust on the blackboard. Sverre, a history teacher in the university, discusses the last part of his lesson with hundreds of students just before the bell rang.

Sverre drops the chalk on his desk as he faced the students, “that’s all for today's session, you are now dismissed.” Everyone immediately packs their things and leaves the room, while Sverre was left alone to clean the writings on the board.

As a kid, Sverre has a great obsession in history and especially when it comes to historic artifacts. His intense passion for the subject led him to many experiences in his life, from being bullied and discriminated against, to being equally praised and admired by others. This obsession for history also led to his current career as a history teacher in the university for two years, and the burning flames of interest for the subject did not fade for even a tiny bit from the past years. Sverre even plans to change career in the future wherein he could be closer to his ideal job of being an Archeologist and unfold the scrolls that hide pieces of the world’s lost history.

Like any normal day, after the class was dismissed, Sverre goes to the library where he spends his break time. He took a convenience store sandwich from the brown satchel on his desk and made his way to his special place, the wooden door creaked close as Sverre exited the room. While walking on the maze-like hallways towards the library, some students from his class greeted him as he passed by, he nodded and smiled at them in return. It always felt like a trek to Sverre when going to the library and he never got used to it, his destination is nearly at the opposite end of the lecture hall and to make that harder, it is on a different floor. At some point on his way, Sverre began thinking of random thoughts to distract himself from the lengthy walk.

“What a nice day outside…”

“Hmm… maybe I should go to that museum I saw last night.”

“Alexander the Great, when was he born again? July? Yeah, if I remember it’s around that time.”

“Walking to the library always felt like a marathon, ha…”

Finally, just before he got lost in his train of thoughts, Sverre turned on the corner and saw the library waving not far from his place. He gently swung the door open and was met with silence in the room, the calming sound that pages make when being turned gave him a tingling sensation running through his back, his tense body from a long walk started to ease and relax as well afterwards. Without any more delay, Sverre started looking through the rows of bookshelves to find something interesting to read. The cool air conditioning brushed on his shoulders as he scanned through the sea of books around him, but his head began to gradually heat up from annoyance after jumping to different bookshelves and was not able to find any interesting read.

“Oh come on, where are some good books when you need one?” Sverre thought to himself

As he paced left and right near a bookshelf, Sverre noticed the sandwich on his hands dangling inside a transparent plastic bag. He decides to settle down and cool off his mind first from frustration by taking a bite and fill up his empty tank.

His stomach gave out a sudden grumble as Sverre scouts the area for a vacant seat, “ah fine, I just need to find a place to eat my snack.”

There are many tables scattered in the library, but from what Sverre is seeing right now, there is not even a single seat that is free. He turned his head left and right, when a familiar face at a distance was caught in his glimpse, it was Mia sitting alone, she is a  student of Sverre since his first time teaching in the university, she is very kind but not a lot of students talk to her.

Sverre walks towards Mia, “finally, an open spot.”

“Hi Mia,” he said in a soft voice.

Mia slowly lifts her head and looks at Sverre, “oh sir,hello.”