As he thought about many questions, he tried opening the book once again but it did not budge even a little. Just like the usual. What is new in this?
Horace got irritated as he felt cheated. If there is not going to be any change in the outcome, then what is the need for it to act differently from the usual?
Generally, the book would call him whenever he entered the library, whenever that may be, irrespective of time.
The only exceptions would be when he had a thought of not visiting the library ever again. No matter what happens, he should visit the library at least once a day.
If he was genuinely sick and he couldn't move to come to the library, the book would show its magnanimous side and leave him alone with pity.
He even thought of faking his health to get a few chances to stay away from it but the book is far more intelligent than him and would not give him any such chances.
But he did not understand what happened to this book that it actually dragged him towards it just after a few hours of 'greeting' it already.
Anyway he doesn't want to try harder once again today after already completing his successful rejection quota once. Hence he simply placed the book back in its place and turned around to leave.
At every step he took away from the book, the light that it gleamed decreased a bit. Once Horace was out of the sight, the entire glow vanished from the book making it look like the normal books round it once again.
Even though the book did not open, this trip to the top floor at least helped Horace in curing his head ache. As he went down the stairs, his face seemed better than earlier.
The woman who was still sitting there reading the book that she took out earlier looked at his face and felt relieved.
His face is no longer pale or there is no trace of sweat on his forehead while his breathing and posture seemed steady and relaxed. It just showed that he is fine now.
This made the woman confirm her suspicion that he went upstairs to take his medicine. As soon as he took his medicines, his complexion turned better. It just means the medicine dose is heavy, right?
'Who would use heavy dose medicines? Only the people who are very very sick. So is this man so sick?' Her imaginations went wild and thought of even more extreme possibilities about Horace's health.
Horace did not take another glance at this woman as he went forward and took his seat on his chair.
He did not think about the woman or the book anymore and continued doing his work. Being in a love hate relationship with the book for so long he got used to not thinking about the problems it always gave him.
After a few more hours, the woman from earlier came to him, "I want to take this book with me."
He just looked at the book and nodded his head while passing a register as he instructed every step that she should do before taking the book. Even though she knows them, it is his duty to remind them again and hence he did those, "Okay please sign here and show me your pass."
Once she signed, he looked at her pass and checked the details of it and the register and confirmed the authenticity of the details she entered and gave the card back to her.
He noticed that the woman's name was 'Arnia' when he checked her details. It is not that he wanted to give her any special attention, but this detail just went into his brain subconsciously.
Once it was done, the librarian for the next shift arrived and asked Horace to take his leave now.
Horace readily agreed and signed his staff register about his log out time and left the library.
As soon as he stepped out of the library, Arnia came to him once again and stood in front of him. He gave her a strange look as he asked, "What do you want?"
His words and behavior clearly showed that he wanted to keep a distance from her but she did not mind him and spoke, "I will accompany you back."
Horace facial expressions changed at her strange words, "What do you mean? Why would you want to accompany me back?"
She simply looked at him and spoke bluntly, "I am worried for you. So I will accompany you."
Horace was flabbergasted by her words. When had he seen in his life that a woman wanted to accompany a man back home? And the reason is that she is worried for him?