Tucson Public Library

TUCSON PUBLIC LIBRARY OCTOBER 14, 2000

The librarian assistant felt her baby boy kick and smiled serenely. It wouldn’t be too much longer before the arrival of little baby boy who? Little Jacob? Ethan? How about Joshua? Maybe the name should be a nod to her husband’s Irish ancestors with Liam or maybe Mac? The list of possible names for boys they both liked was short, so short as to contain none. As the patrons placed books before her and every book passed beneath the scanner she viewed both the cardholder and the author’s name for possibilities. Daily over dinner she ran her new list by her husband George and he vetoed every one, much to her dismay. The ones he had offered seemed too old fashioned to her, too dated or too common. She wanted something unusual, but not weird like the names celebrities chose for their children. She thought choosing baby names should be easy and fun. It would be easy if the baby were a girl. They would name her Amanda. But the sonogram revealed it was a baby boy and suddenly finding a boys’ name they both liked acquired a new urgency. Her husband George suggested Miles or George Junior. Miles made her think of one of the brothers on Frazier. Not good. And there was no way she would stick a child with someone else’s name, no matter how much she loved George. The baby would not be named George Junior, not if she could help it.

The sliding doors of the Tucson Public Library swished open admitting two more people into the library’s rarefied air. A tall thin man wearing a black baseball cap walked through the security system archway followed by a small boy clutching his children’s library card application in his hand. They proceeded to the information desk and he proudly handed the paper to the pretty lady behind the counter.

“Hello Conner!” She said, looking up from the application and making a mental note of the child’s name. “I see here you are eight years old! I think that you should have a library card and I am going to see that you get it.”

He was a cute boy with a splatter of freckles across his nose and spiked hair. He stood straight and tall beside the man with the acne scarred face and baseball cap with FBI on the front.

“You must be Conner’s father. I’ll need to see your identification.”

“No, I’m his uncle. What kind of ID do you take?”

“Your driver’s license, a bank card, your passport, anything with a picture on it.”

“How about my employee badge Mrs. Flynn?” He had noted her name on her employee badge.

“That’s fine. Are you an FBI agent?”

“No, I doubt if I were that I would wear this hat. I work for the city, code enforcement.”

“That must be tough. People get mad at you all the time?”

“Yeah, you know how it is. People don’t like to be told what they can and cannot do all the time. The worst are the trailer park nazis.” He mumbled.

Mrs. Flynn nodded in understanding and turned her attention to the boy. “Here, Conner. I like your name! I like it a lot. Maybe I will name my baby Conner. What do you think about that?”

“That’s cool,” Conner answered, smiling at her, revealing the gap where his two permanent front teeth would soon be appearing.

She continued, “Here is your library card. You may take out five books during the first month, starting today. Then after a month you may take out a hundred books at a time.”

The boy’s eyes widened in amazement, “a hundred books! Uncle Jerry, do you believe it! I could take out a hundred books.”

“The young people’s section is right over there, Conner”, the librarian pointed off to the left. “What do you think you want to read first? Do you like Harry Potter?”

“He’s already read all of those. Have you got any suggestions?” The uncle asked.

“Yes, of course. There’s one that comes to mind. It’s really good, a book for kids his age and older. “Maniac McGee” by Jerry Spinelli. It’s about a real boy who can do some pretty amazing things, like Harry Potter.”

“We’ll check it out.”

“Ohhhh! Bad pun!”

“Sorry.” Jerry grinned sheepishly and tipped his hat as he walked toward the children’s section where he helped Conner locate “Maniac McGee”. Then he left his nephew in the children’s section to look around. He wandered over to the computer area and saw each of the seven CRT’s were occupied.
Jerry looked around, saw no available computer and looked for the clipboard with the rules and waiting list. The library limited computer use to a half hour, strictly enforced on Saturdays like this.

He glanced in the direction of the children’s section, saw Conner sitting at a table reading and then turned to one of the computers at the next desk with access to the library’s card catalog. There, he found and noted what he was seeking. FBI Agent Greg McGarry’s “The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us”. Jerry scribbled the call number on a piece of scrap paper conveniently located in a tray next to the printers.

He noticed a young girl sat staring at the computer screen with rapt attention. Her face was in profile to him revealing her cute little upturned nose and the glitter sparkling around her eyes when she moved her head. She was squirming in the chair, squirming a lot. He watched her for long minutes with rapt attention, the same attention he would pay to a stripper performing a lap dance.

Finally the patron in the seat next to her got up. Jerry walked slowly behind her, absorbing the view of the faded red thong panties in the gaping maw between her hip hugging jeans and her lower back covered with downy hairs, a view she must have been fully aware she presented as evidenced by her posture. Jerry peered over her shoulder at the screen where he was surprised to see what she was viewing were dresses, prom dresses.

“Which one do you like?” He asked, smiling shyly. Startled, or pretending to be, she snapped around in the chair and turned to see who was speaking to her. He noted she was very petite, pretty in a “wrong side of the tracks” way and reminded him of that girl in high school. The one who had said, ‘yes, I’ll go out with you Jerry’, then stood him up. Just like his mother said she would.

“This one, the cobalt blue strapless one with all the glitter. It’s sick,” She said pointing to one of the dresses.

“What’s so sick about it?” He asked. He was intrigued by this red thong panty girl’s defensive posture, the way she averted her almond shaped brown eyes. Her hair was light brown at the roots, an inch and a half down then blonde for the remaining length, down to her lightly freckled and pimpled shoulders. He recognized the ravages of teenage acne from personal experience.

“It’s not like sick, like what you think. Sick is the new hot.” When she spoke she revealed a silver ball in the center of her tongue.

“Like ‘cool’?”

“Umm yeah.” She turned back to the computer and hit the back arrow then hit ‘print”.

“So…I see you have a pierced tongue. Did it hurt?”

“It wasn’t too bad. It’s new. I got it last Tuesday. Next I’m going to do my belly button and maybe…Why? You got piercings?”

“No, no piercings for me. Don’t you need your parents permission if you are under eighteen?”

“I have a fake ID. I’m fourteen, almost fifteen but I look eighteen. My grandmother will never notice it. I live with her. My mom’s a crack ho.” She stated in a very matter of-fact manner. “I’m going to get a tattoo. One of those Chinese characters that says prosperity so I can get lots of money and then I can rent a limo for prom.”

“When is your prom?”

“Next spring. I’m going with this guy whose a junior. He’s older. He said I could go as his date if I give him, you know.”

“Sex?”

“No. Not that. Just oral.” She said it like she was intending to agree to go bowling with the young man.

“So, oral sex doesn’t count?”

“Not really. It’s not like we’re hooking up or anything. Listen, I have to go.” She got up from her seat affording him the sight of her bare midriff below her tight little tee shirt as she slipped on her jeans jacket. “See ya.”

“Listen, what’s your name?”

“Jessica.”

“Jessica. That’s pretty. I’m Jerry. Hey Jessica, listen, I’ll buy the dress for you. What size do you wear, a three?” He sounded desperate.

“A zero. I’m a size zero.” She turned and waved. “See ya around Jerry!”

“Yeah, take care.” He watched as she walked toward the entrance before he sprinted over to the printer to retrieve the email she had left there, forgotten, addressed to dEaThBygLiTteR@hotmail.com .He folded the page up and put it in his pocket.