Hey Jude - (y)

So, everyone thought I got really cracked-up this time when I chose to work in the library. I can give a list of reasons, but I reckon no one would hear me out anyway. I just went about with my head held high and told myself that bar-coding books was a new and refreshing experience. A torrent rushed from a cracked dam when it hit me that I simply exchanged time with energy and was exceptionally brutal in wasting it.

As I shuffled books weighing more than my arm in and out of the shelves, manually searched for matching code numbers (the numbers were torturously huge), opening books that could be 10 years old but never saw the brighter sunlight, the air and everything revolving around me STANK! The stink emaciated me and now, I am convinced I’m bullshitting myself. Hey, the numbers now all look alike.

If the musty-good-for-nothing-over-100-years-old-material law journals were not enough, a librarian called Judy with a braided pony-tail and a funny smelling hair-oil took me under her wing. Boy, did she cling! On the first day of the job – hey, that’s fine, but when she started telling me the sequence of numbers were ascending or descending, I had enough. Decided then to avoid eye-contact, mostly to control my blinking anger. “Damn it Lady, I AM COMPETENT !”

Took myself for a ‘letting-my-hair-down’ session by walking to Atria (the nearby shopping mall). Also needed solitude – if I wasn’t lonesome enough! The joke here is, I didn’t have to sign out and I did mention I was going to take awhile. I was getting paid by the hour and Judy – the mother hen was helping! HA!

I’m neurotic and anyone can attest to that. The only thing that was really enticing in that gloomy place was the PayLess Bookstore. I got 3 books for RM 15 with Oprah’s Book Club logo on them – assurance that every penny spent was worth it – I really hope so. Since I had been craving for Kaya Balls for sometime now, I indulged myself with those little golden things with heavenly innards. I actually walked around aimlessly for 20 minutes to wait for it to cook. Shopped a little with the pretence of getting a belated birth day present but ended up buying something for myself.

By the time I got back, the air conditioner was comforting and Judy set a date with me for the next day. How can I say no..??!!

Things got a tad worse when she divulged the internal politics of the library complementing it with all the conflicts and power struggles, spiced up with tales of racism and noble human tolerance. How dear Judy braced herself while everyone else was doing things wrong. Told myself that I was not going to get involved. Next year, when I come back as a student, that is all I am going to be.

The type of politics that existed in that place was akin to that which I experienced in secondary school. Believe me, it stinks with plots, back-stabbing details, the culmination of which is worse that the mite-eaten, musty books. So, I stuffed my nose, and ears, as I walked with Judy leading the way and sat with her for a decent meal. After that she raced to a dingy looking bookstore only to buy a B-rated novel (judging by the cover).

On the way back, while clutching my Cincau and wondering what the heck I was doing with Judy, she said, “Let’s use a short-cut”. Well, don’t know if it was one, but it was a LOT quieter. Just like the atmosphere, we threaded on a more personal chit-chat. She talked so much that I decided to blurt it out, “Are you married, Judy?”. Now, I knew the answer. She was a spinster to the core that collected cook books and lived with her mom that refused to let her keep a dog, nevertheless, I asked her anyway.
“No, why? I look married is it?”. I just shrugged and decided to humour her.

Judy told me she didn’t want to be tied down and even added a true life story of a man being happier as a bachelor. Just then I thought it’s nice to be in control, but on the expense of living a routine and mundane life and clearly showing it? I’m not far away from ending up like that. Worse, I would be a spinster only to be eaten by Alsatians at the backyard – just like Bridget Jones before she bumped into Mark...