Gatsby and I

A book in a library

It was a blazing hot summer day when this all started to occur. Well, it was technically the month of May but it was really hot there, outside the high school campus. So, to chill down, I went into the library. I knew what I wanted that time as soon as I walked in and looked the librarian straight in those big brown eyes of hers.

By the way, you haven't ever yet seen our school librarian. She is a rather young woman who is really nice. Besides those big brown eyes, she has raven black hair and a rather big nose. She often wears red lipstick and that suits her really well, to be frank. I love the fact that she is really stylish, bright and bubbly. Otherwise, this woman is the exact opposite of what you expect a librarian to be. She is really reasonable and calm, rather than the repulsive beasts (and what you can do to avoid them - this was indeed a "Fantastic Beasts" pun) we think of them to be.

That time I didn't stay around the library too long, I just plain asked her:

"Do you guys have a book called 'The great Gatsby'?"

And she fortunately answered me:

"Why yes we do! And in English too! Is that okay for you?"

"Yes, it is. I really want that book. I want it badly."

"Okie-dokie!"

She went to the shelf with books in English on it. Too bad schools like mine in Romania only have a few books in English, the rest being in other languages and mostly Romainan of course. Without the shadow of a doubt, they think us Romanians can't understand a word in English. Most of us can't. But not me. As you can see here, I basically know English like the back of my hand and thus I thought that I would have no problem in understanding a little book like that one. Especially that I had seen half of that movie! I wondered if Leo was mentioned in the book... Me and my crazy thoughts!

I saw that book hidden behind the other ones, like a gem in a treasure chest; like a fire opal in a chest full of gold. It was there and I instantly felt some sort of connection between me and the book. I felt like the women on the cover wanted to speak to me or were looking away from me in particular. I loved this feeling and it lingered on as I held the book in my hands. I define it as some sort of urge to open it. But I put it in my backpack next to my fidget spinner as I wanted to save the thrills of this book for when I arrived back home. Nevertheless, I always felt the thrill; the urge to pick it up and read the first few pages, all the way home.

It seemed that Jay Gatsby himself was fixing his eyes on me and beckoning me to savour every word of it. I even thought I heard a voice calling out: "Reeead meeee!". Damn! I was hearing things, hearing voices, seeing silhouettes of somneone I was unfamiliar with. I knew this happened every time that I wanted to read something badly. I had seen pigs with "Animal Farm", flames with "Fahrenheit 451" and even robots when wanting to see "The Matrix". It was a movie, but still. This time, I knew things would be different. Way different.