The Library Girl

Chapter 3

January 4, 2015

I have just had the hardest day of my life.

Even though I started looking for a new home yesterday, I still haven't found one and it's already starting to get dark. I've asked everyone I know in town but no one believes that my house has really burnt down, and I think you can guess what they all said, can't you?

That's right. They all said "No."

"You're just trying to run away from your parents," they said. "Now go home and don't bother us again. They must be worried about you."

Whenever someone slammed the door in my face, I turned away and ran off sobbing uncontrollably. How I wished I could do as they said and go home, and that my parents were there to worry about me. I love and miss my parents so much. Just the mere thought of me running away from them was enough to make me want to kill the person who said it to me.Now it's been almost two days since the fire and I still have no home.My excitement about the New Year's party, the festiveness and feasting of three days ago, feels a whole world away. Imagine what I would have thought if someone at the party had told me that in three short days I would be homeless. I wouldn't have believed them. I would have told them they were crazy, and continued celebrating New Year without a care.But now I'm homeless, I have no family, and there's no use whatsoever to deny it.

January 5, 2015

I am bursting with happiness and joy!

You must be surprised to hear this, and it is, in fact, a huge exaggeration. But this is definitely the best I've felt since the fire.

This morning I decided to go to the library. It would be good to relax with a book and forget about all my worries. Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.Anyway, when I walked into the library I felt... home.Finally, there was something safe and familiar, warm, comforting and homely. It was just what I needed after such a hard past two days. And when I went up to the counter to cancel my library card (it burned along with the rest of the house.) the librarians believed me. It was so good to finally have someone who believed me. It's another wonderful feeling that I had been short of in the past few days.Surprisingly, it was only after I had read for an hour that I realized. 

Had I not always considered the library a second home?Had I not gone there as often as I could since before I could even read? It was so blindingly obvious that I was shocked with myself for not having thought of it the moment my house burnt down. I should live in the library.

Now the library is closed, but I'm still there! I feel at peace and almost relieved. The place that I have always considered my second home will be my second home.