The Library Guy

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3rd June, 2017. Ananya, a benign, tall, shy girl living in her wondrous teenhood, would never ever forget this date. A brand new library called "The Readers' Castle" was opened on that day in her neighborhood! It was absolutely a dream-come-true thing for her.

A library having a number of huge wooden bookshelves having innumerable books in them; every genre written on a piece of paper that hanged on the top of the shelves; taking out a random book of fiction and plunge into its treasury world; her bony hands strolling through the cover of all the books, taking in the presence of ocean full of words and sky full of thoughts encased in them. It was more than just a library to her, it was a precious piece of her soul.

Merrily, she walked down the St. George street and reached her own paradise. The library was well built, freshly painted with a light hue of crimson. The weirdly tempting, faint smell of paint underrated the air around and blossomed her heart. Inside, there were many people, from 10 year olds to aged ones, either wandering through the shelves or sitting on the chairs with a book in their hands. But Ananya knew for sure that the number of readers would decrease to a huge extent tomorrow as people were like the typical new year resolutions, they'll happily start a thing but would forget it the day after.

She quickly registered her name  and stuff at the librarian and stroded towards the word 'fiction' written on the shelves. She picked up the "The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers" and sat on one of the corner seat and sunk into the world of Frodo Baggins. When a call on her phone brought her back to the reality is when she realized that it had been 2 hours since she left home and that she should hurry back. As soon as she closed the book she caught someone staring at her who broke the look when their eyes met. It was a guy around her age who was reading "To kill a mockingbird". She had heard a lot about that book but she was more into tales which are practically impossible. She shook the stare off and left the library.

The next day, at that same time she sat at her usual seat in the library and continued reading her book. This time, that guy was just two seats away from Ananya. She frequently felt the stare on her but she never looked back. With a sigh, she left the library soon.

The third day too, she saw that guy still reading "To kill a mockingbird". This time she scanned the boy instead of the book. He looked just like any other guy of her age. Nothing special. Black hair, tall, slender wearing an oversized black sweatshirt. And this time, he was the one who caught her stare. And both of them embarrassingly looked back in their books.

This continued for many weeks. Then one day, Ananya was at the library and she noticed at once that, that guy was not there. She scanned the whole library but couldn't find him anywhere. She didn't know why but she felt quite abandoned. As she was lost in the thought of his absence, the book fell down from her hands and someone picked it up for her. And it was none other than the person she missed. That guy. She was so startled that she didn't know what to say. Should she say hi and introduce herself? Or should she talk about the book or something else? But all that came out of her mouth was a soft "Thank you." He smiled and said "You're welcome."
Ananya was completely baffled why she missed him that day. Because of some unknown reason, she wanted to see him, wanted him to be at the library everday. And more than the love of books, this desire led her running back to the library every single day.

The staring and blushing and smiling at each other continued for days. Weeks turned into months and one day he didn't come. She waited a long while for him but he never came. He was not there the next day too. Even on the third and fourth day. There was no way she could know his whereabouts because forget about address, she didn't even know his name. But she came to the library every day just for the sake of seeing him walk through that door. But he never did.

The sixth day after he went missing, the librarian gave Ananya a note and said nothing upon asking about it. Deep inside, she knew from whom the note was. She opened the crisp white sheet of paper in which a handwritten letter was written which read:

"Dear library girl,
I am that guy who reads " To kill a mockingbird". I am that guy who developed a strange interest in books and our library just because a random girl came there everyday.  
I am that guy who stares at you while you drowned in fantasizing every word of The Lord  Of The Rings. I am that guy who couldn't come up to you and start a conversation because my introvert self didn't let me so. I am that guy who fell in love with a girl he doesn't know the name of. I am Aarav Sharma, your library friend.

I know what you must be thinking right now. "Why isn't Aarav here right now?" Or "Why isn't he coming to the library since a few days?" Well, I guess it's time to tell you the truth. I am suffering from lung cancer since I was 11 years old. Yep, I know, "Cancer". Big deal, isn't it?

Anyway, the day I saw you in the library, I knew I'd be hopelessly falling in love with you. You looked just like a normal girl, but still so different. The way you jumped into the fiction genre, the way you smile when you see all the books, the way  your face twitches to keep your spectacles on its place, the way you searched for me that one day, the way you said thank you, every thing about you seized my heart. (I know that's not a lot of things but it did!) And the first time in life, I actually wanted to live.

Yeah, so I told our librarian about all this things and also gave him this note so that he can give it you when I would no longer be there to stare or smile at you. Because you know, cancer... takes your whole damn life. So if you are reading this right now, then I'm under the earth, my flesh being torn apart, stinking and mixing into the soil but if I were alive right now, I'd still be smiling at from a couple of bookshelves away.

PS. My greatest regret in my life would be not knowing your name. Ever.

Love,
The Library Guy."

And there she was, out of breath, sobbing her eyes out and crumbling the paper in her hands. It was weird that she actually felt heart broken because till now, she didn't even know his name. But she did because as the song says, people fall in love in mysterious ways.

A sudden tap on her shoulder let Ananya sweep her tears away and turn around. And she saw him. Half smiling, half apologizing look on his face, unaware of what to say or do.

"Hey! So you read the letter? Okay, well um... I'm so sorry. I mean, whatever is written in it is true but I'm not dead. Well, of course you know that now. But listen, actually I had to go to my hometown because of some emergency and this stupid librarian thought that I was dead and gave you this letter... which you already read. Oh my god, I've messed it all up! But I'm sorry..."

Ananya stood there dumbstruck, taking in all that happened in the last few minutes. She was crying, she was happy and angry at the guy in front of her. Every possible emotion  hovered over her face, all at once.
She didn't laugh and hug Aarav out of joy, neither did she say "it's okay" to him. Rather she hit him as hard as she could and then she laughed, saying "I hate you" in the sweetest way possible. And then it was a pure firework of laughter and happiness, while Aarav kept apologizing and Ananya kept forgiving.

"I'm Ananya Mathur.", she finally said.

"Aarav Sharma, the library guy.", said he as they shook hands.