It was getting close. Way too close.
Vivian still stood next to me, rambling about her daily adventures. I must have given appropriate answers when needed, for she seemed happy. But Cassidy did not, from what little I could see of her. The shelves blocked all but her left arm, which was scribbling frenziedly.
The door pinged. Cassidy stood up, glancing at her watch. She scanned the room. No one looked at her or at the lonely corner.
I wanted to know the time as well. I tried to look in the direction of my wrist, but my body wouldn't cooperate. I couldn't move.
Vivian asked me something. It sounded blurry, like she was shouting underwater. She turned her head and shouted for someone. I couldn't hear who.
My head was pounding; my heart was racing. I felt nauseous; my breakfast rising. I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the old linoleum. Vivian screamed. The shrill sound was still and wavered in the silent library. Everyone turned and looked.
I felt an arm around my waist. I tried to move my head to look but I was paralyzed. The anonymous person carefully helped me to a straight-backed chair.
The faces hovering over me blurred and faded. The voices echoed and boomed. I could hear snippets of conversation; nothing concrete.
"What's happening?"
"....A stroke... Ambulance..."
"Like Dad, right..."
Two heads fixed in my mind. A girl's, pale, thin and pretty. The other face was a boy's, or a young man. He had brown hair and a square jaw, and he looked calm and focused.
Instantly, somehow, I knew. This was Drex. I had to let them know that they were right next to each other, before they walked away. All that time would be wasted, all the effort gone to spoils. I urgently tried to speak, I tried so hard but nothing was coming out, I was attempting to form coherent words but nothing was happening.
"...Eyre... book..."
His brow furrowed, then cleared as if he understood. "She wants air! Everyone stand back!"
No! He didn't understand.
My vision was blacking out. I felt the need to communicate, to make them realize that they were right next to each other.
"Drex.... Cassidy..."
"Yes?" they both responded. Then stopped. Stared.
And everything faded under their shocked faces.
YOU ARE READING
Meeting in the Margins
Short StoryCassidy and Drex are strangers. They've never met, they don't know the other's last names, and they don't know the other's age. But they share one thing in common. They converse through the pages of an English classic at the town library. The pair's...
