Of course, it wasn’t practical to carry my handbag around with me the entire afternoon so I settled for checking my phone on a regular basis when I popped into the office to put the kettle on and there were no further messages from Layla, although whenMalia, who was working the afternoon shift, saw me she pointed out that the reception was terrible in the building and I needed to log into the wifi if I wanted any contact with the outside world.
‘I’m always getting calls from school,’ she said. ‘The usual – Asif has hurt his finger using the whiteboard pen, or Indira says she feels sick, or Ravi has fallen into the stinging nettles at the edge of the playground, or whatever. It’s endless.’ She rolled her eyes.
‘Gosh, three kids at primary school,’ I said, impressed. ‘You must have your hands full.’
‘Threehypochondriackids at primary school. Why do you think I want to escape here every afternoon?’ She laughed. ‘I barely make enough money doing this job to cover the afterschool All Aboard club, but it’s worth it for my sanity. Do you have children?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I was just checking for any messages from her actually. Layla. She’s at university now. Just started.’
‘Wow.’ Malia looked half impressed and half sympathetic. ‘Weird time, hey? I can’t really get my head past the next few years with my lot. Half the time I feel like I can’t wait for them to leave home and just leave me in peace, but I know when it comes to it I’ll probably feel differently.’
‘You will,’ I said. ‘And you’re right. It is a weird time. One of the reasons I went for this job was to get me out of the house and take my mind off her absence. Well, that and the fact that I was replaced by AI on my copy-editing job.’
‘No way! Is that even allowed?’
‘It is if you’re on a zero-hours contract,’ I said. ‘Anyway, I’m still doing freelance work if you hear of anyone who needs a highly skilled but redundant copy editor, and in the meantime I’m very happy to be working here.’
‘So, it’s just a temporary thing,’ she said as we left the office. ‘This job? I get it, I’m not really seeing it as a long-term thingmyself. It fits in well with school hours, but the pay is shocking. I think the only career librarian here is David. And he’s been here forever.’
‘Oh really?’ I said, waving at Colin who was now helping his busload of friends choose their books, whether they wanted his help or not by the looks of it. ‘I assumed it was a sort ofapproaching retirementjob.’
‘No, I think he’s been here twenty years,’ Malia said, indicating I should give her a hand unloading the book returns trolley. ‘Ever since his wife died. He used to have a big corporate job. Very high up in one of the big publishing houses apparently. His wife was a writer…’ Her voice trailed off as she glanced over my shoulder and saw David heading towards us.
‘I’m going to take Pilot out for a stroll before the homework club arrives,’ he said to Malia. ‘Is that okay?’
‘Of course it is, David.’ Malia handed me a pile of books. ‘You’re the boss, remember? You choose when you want to go and stretch your legs.’ She gave him a stern maternal look and he smiled.
‘I’ll go and get my coat,’ he said. ‘We’ll only be five minutes. Here boy.’
Even though he’d barely raised his voice Pilot instantly appeared from behind one of the worktables where he’d been sitting beside a young man who was doing some research for a genealogy project.
We both watched as David leaned to scratch Pilot between his ears and they made their way to the office.
Malia turned to me. ‘He never leaves,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know his contract, but I bet the hours he’s being paid for finished ages ago.’ She shook her head. ‘Honestly, I love him to bits but he’s here all the time, seven days a week. I’ve been here two years, since Ravi moved up from Reception, and I can’t think of a single time he’s taken a holiday. He won’t even set a date to gethis hip replacement done because he knows he’ll be out of action for a minimum of four weeks post-op, and he doesn’t want to let everyone down. Last year when he had the flu I put my foot down and made him take an afternoon off, but that’s my one success.’
I imagined it would be hard to argue with Malia once she’d put her mind to something – she had the kind of determined voice that brooked no debate, one that was probably essential for a mother of three.
‘Maybe he just really loves his job,’ I said.
She nodded, conceding the point. ‘He does,’ she said. ‘You’re not wrong there. He knows this place inside out; all the back catalogue and the new stock – he’s pretty much read every book ever written. He knows all our regular customers, and for a man in his late sixties he keeps up with all the tech. There have been endless software updates and changes to the database and he’s good at knowing how to help people search the archives for various things. Puts me to shame given that I’m a millennial who grew up in the internet era and yet still can’t really do much beyond,try googling it.’
I laughed. ‘That would be very much my response.’
‘I think he really does love this place,’ she said. ‘And he’s got nobody else, so I guess it’s his natural home.’ She hefted another stack of books off the trolley. ‘It’s a shame really.’
I took the proffered books and carried them to the stacks, taking in the array of colourful spines and the scent of warm paper that emanated from the shelves; the toddler gleefully darting around the corner with his board book, hiding from his mum who was selecting something from the biography section; the young man at the table recently vacated by Pilot, still engrossed in his old newspapers and public record archive; the student on his laptop working away on his PhD; and the girl in an oversized woollen jumper, legs drawn beneath her in thereading chair next to the radiator as she pored over the latest Rebecca Yarros. I considered Malia’s words about David. Maybe him being here all the time wasn’t a terrible shame after all. As natural homes went, you could do a lot worse.
Chapter Sixteen
‘So Malia says that David’s been working there basically non-stop since his wife died twenty years ago,’ I said to Joe later that evening. ‘Ovarian cancer she thinks, although I’m not sure how she knows that. Maybe she just asked him direct, she’s quite a force of nature.’
‘Sounds like she’ll be interesting to work with,’ said Joe. ‘And Colin sounds great. How about the others?’
‘I didn’t meet Ren in the end but there’s a young lad who works Saturdays. And someone else, although I can’t remember their name. I don’t think their shifts overlap with mine. But either way, everyone’s been so friendly.’ I beamed at my husband.
‘I am honestly so glad you’ve enjoyed it,’ Joe said, popping the cork on the bottle of Cava he’d bought to celebrate my first day at work. ‘I know you were nervous, but it sounds like you just jumped straight in and got on with it. I’m so proud of you.’
‘Well,’ I said, blushing a little, ‘it helps that I’ve got such nice colleagues, but it’s a busier job than I expected. I was on the go all day. Barely checked my phone once.’
