Elena was anxiously waiting for Lucien in the hall. Being late on the first day of work would definitely not make a good first impression on the director, Mr. Hank.
Another receptionist, Cathy, smiled to her colleague and joked, “Elena, who are you waiting for? Your sweetheart?”
“Come on, Cathy. I’m waiting for a friend of mine. Today’s his first day working for the association.”
When Elena was talking, Lucien came into the hall.
“Thanks God, you are here, Lucien.” Elena walked out of the counter and toward Lucien, “Why do you look so tired? Are you sick?”
Lucien knew he must look terrible. The headache caused by his soul injury was torturing him all the way. After rushing here, he felt quite dizzy.
“Well… I think so. But I’m okay. Thank you for asking, Elena.” Lucien smiled to Elena, who was wearing a long white dress today. “I think we’re gonna meet Mr. Hank now, aren’t we?” asked Lucien.
“Yes, we are.” Elena started walking upstairs, and was followed by Lucien, “No worries. Sunday’s never a busy day, or say, the work is not busy in general.”
Mr. Hank was a middle-aged serious man, who was always wearing a decent suit. After asking some basic questions, Mr. Hank just nodded and asked Elena to lead Lucien directly to the library.
The library was on the second floor. While they were heading toward it, Elena was trying to describe the other librarian to Lucien, “His name is Pierre Sandor. Both of you work the morning shift in the library. He’s an ok guy. I don’t think he’ll give you a hard time, so no worries. But he’s a bit… umm…” Elena paused for a few seconds, “weird.”
The guy called Pierre should also have some connections in the association, or he would have no chance working as a librarian here if he was just a nobody. Lucien just wanted to do his own work and avoid trouble as much as possible.
The Music Library was huge and quiet, and thousands of precious music books, journals, and newspaper were collected here.
There was only a black-haired young guy sitting behind the wood counter, reading the tablature carefully. In Lucien’s eyes, the guy looked like a big fan of music.
“Pierre, Pierre…” Elena tried to draw his attention, “This is the new librarian, Lucien.”
Finally, Pierre raised his head from the book. His brown eyes looked a bit confused.
“Morning, Elena! What day is it today… Sunday?”
“Nice to meet you, Pierre. I’m Lucien Evans, the new librarian.” Lucien introduced himself with a warm smile.
Just realizing his new colleague was standing in front of him, Pierre walked out of the counter and greeted Lucien, “Nice to meet you, Lucien. I’m Pierre Sandor.”
When they were shaking hands, Pierre put on a sly smile, “Lucien, you’d better… refrain yourself a bit…”
“What are you talking about, Pierre?” Elena was confused.
“Just guys’ conversation,” answered Pierre casually.
Shrugging her shoulders, Elena whispered to Lucien, “You see. I told you… And I gotta go now, Lucien. Make good use of the books here, and work hard.”
After Elena left, Pierre started showing Lucien around. While he was walking, he talked to Lucien casually, “Umm… I sometimes talk in a weird way. If you don’t understand, don’t let my words disturb you.”
“So you asking me to ‘refrain myself’ was also a casual talk?” asked Lucien.
“Nope, that was serious. Guys in our age can easily drain ourselves from too much… Umm, you know what I’m talking about.”
Lucien didn’t know what to say. Now in Lucien’s eyes, Pierre looked like a big fan of music, and kind of nasty.
After introducing the basic stuff that Lucien had to do as a librarian here, Pierre stretched himself a bit and said, “Only the members of the association can have access to this library, so it’s never busy here. Just remember to be polite to the musicians. You can spend more time here, and I’m gonna go back and enjoy The Well-Tempered Clavier now.”
His eyes were glowing when he mentioned music.
“Sure.” Lucien was more than willing to be left alone. With his spirit library, Lucien was always trying to store more books in it, like a squirrel collecting its favourite cones.
Lucien quickly leafed through a book, and a copy of the book instantly appeared in his spirit library. Then Lucien directly turned to another one.
“Hey, what are you doing there?” Pierre asked in a confused way. He hadn’t gone far yet.
“I’m doing a random check here to see if there are any damaged ones. Then I can take note of them and report to the association.” Lucien immediately made up an excuse.
“You’re as careful as a woman, Lucien.” Pierre commented.
In the following four hours, only two musicians visited the library. Lucien thus managed to collect more than a hundred of the books there. His arms felt pretty sore from leafing through them.
The books covered many aspects of the world, not just music. Lucien wanted to have a better understanding of the world as soon as possible.
…………
Lucien finished his work at about half past midday. When he was leaving the library, Pierre was still immersed in music, with a bread in his hand.
Later, Lucien went to Mr. Victor’s place and continued his study.
Life was pretty peaceful in the following couple of days.
One evening, John came back. When no one was around, he started telling Lucien what happened on that day.