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Bibliophile
Candice Barrow
LIBRARIAN: 60 year-old woman
ARBY: 35 year-old man
SETTING: Public library, several people sitting and reading some talking quietly to
each other. LIBRARIAN stands behind information desk skimming a small book.
ARBY walks up to the counter.
ARBY: Excuse me,
(LIBRARIAN looks up)
(ARBY pulls out a handgun and points it at LIBRARIAN. She trembles violently)
ARBY: I'm looking for a book, its called Eternal Star Fire by Maxwell Plunkett.
You don't seem to have it o the shelf, yet your records indicate that it is in the
library. This book is vital to both my sanity and your life. (LIBRARIAN grabs a
book cart for support). Don't you understand? I need to have this book. It is vital
to ... to everything! I can't go on if I can't get back into that world. I need to be
in the Star Fire realm. I need to be in some other place. I just can't stay here! I
need to be inside a book. I need to have a book inside of me! (Looks at LIBRARIAN)
Haven't you ever caressed the spine of a hardcover book, savored its weight in
your hand and marveled at the sheer number of pages? Haven't you ever
mouthed the words so sweet that they were as a lover's lips? Haven't you ever
stroked the pale paper and stared at the contrast of the black inky words until
you couldn't make them out anymore? Weren't you ever sucked with agonizing
pressure into a world that made this atrocity of an existence pale in compari­
son? Did you ever lose yourself in the creation of another's mind knowing that
they used only paper and ink to bring you there to the brink of insanity, to the
place where reality becomes fiction? When you were in that place, that world
alive with such color and texture and adventure, did you want to leave? Did
you want to be jarred back into this . . .. (Gestures wildly with the gun) This steaming
pile of refuse built upon suffering and perpetuating only sorrow? (Pause) I need
to have this book; I need to have a place to go in order to escape from this
crumbling illusion of realism before it caves in on me!
(LIBRARIAN fa ints)
ARBY: (to the man at the circulation desk) Okay ... fine. Do you have any Danielle
Steel?
END
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