rainbows

four

We walk towards the lady. Her face is hidden by the cosmopolitan magazine she's reading.

Ryan clears his throat "Excuse me, who are you?"

The lady looks up, keeps her magazine aside. From up close I can see the resemblance of hers to someone I know of.

Removing her spectacles she says "May I know who you are, young man?" She nods at me "lady,"

"Where is Ms.Rivers?" I ask her

She laughs, " Ms.Rivers young lady is my daughter." Now that she said Ms.Rivers is her daughter. I get the resemblance. The way she talks and touches her face. I've never been frank to Ms.Rivers but I've been here enough times to notice the similarities.

"Oh sorry, we were waiting for Ms.Rivers to show up. I'm Ryan Bennett." He forwards his hand.

The lady nods and says "She's out with her fiancé."

Fiancé?

"Oh, oh okay, Mrs.Rivers," Ryan says

"Call me Christine." She says

I nod and start to look around. Everybody is silent when Christine speaks up "What was it you wanted to talk to Gwen about?" She eyes the camera too but doesn't say anything. She's looking at me now for answers, I can feel it but I choose to remain silent.

Ryan looks between us, sees the tension and replies "So I have this project thing I have to do for college and we just started today."

"Ah yes." She replies " So what role did Gwen had to play in this?"

"Well, to be fair I have no clue." He laughs.

"Okay then." She says and unties her hair. "You going to ask questions? Or something?" She asks

"Uhm, guess we'll start with that." Ryan starts off with the first question "Christine you've been a librarian your whole life?" I'm standing beside him thinking how am I supposed to contribute to this project.

She smiles and says "I never liked reading. Before Rob's death, we used to live in a nearby town. But after the tragic accident, everything changed. Gwen turned ten and we had no means of coping up with our finances, we had been financially dependent on Rob. In search of a job both me and Gwen shifted here. Oliver, the previous owner of this library kept me here as staff until later that year he left the town giving me this library and I later passed it onto Gwen."

That's, that's a lot of information I've gained in the past minute than I have ever in my weekly visits here.

"Damn." Ryan chirps as  he moves onto his next question, "You said you weren't fond of reading. But you're here, sitting in a library. Why?"

Exactly. Explain. Stupid oldie.

"That's the irony here my child. I didn't like reading but ended up working in a library in search of a job. Working here at first was weird. I didn't like it. But for money, I had to do something. One day on my shift I stumbled upon a book, That book changed my life, I started craving more and more words and thoughts from different people. My outlook on life changed. Time passed by and I read a lot of books. I'm glad for this job." She smiles and looks around taking in the structure of the library.

"What's a message you would like to pass onto others regarding books?" Ryan comes up with another question. Okay where is he thinking such questions from, I'm just awkwardly standing here.

"I don't care what your age is, if you have a mind, that's enough for reading. You're never too old for stories. Pick up that book you've been thinking of reading for a long time and read. Don't just read. Find yourself inside them and get lost inside them. Again and again. Keep on doing this but mostly Live. Live inside them because the stories found between pages are worth all."

"Wow," I say genuinely impressed for once. Ryan zooms in the camera towards me. I shyly tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and smile hiding my nervousness and insecurities.

"Alyssa," Ryan says. The camera's still on me. Uh-Huh, this isn't going to end well.

"What are your thoughts about it?" He asks me

I put my head down. My thoughts? What? I'm in deep shit. Part of me wants to punch Ryan in his face but part of me is excited to have someone to listen to. I silently stare at him. I have a lot of thoughts running inside my mind regarding books but I'm unable to put them into words. "You can do it, Alyssa," I say to myself in my mind and look at him.