Patterns in the Library

"I'm about to beat you with the wet end of your arm after I rip it off," Big John yelled across the library.

     The library did what she told dozens of children a day not to do in the library: she ran. She also stumbled a bit on a bag someone left in the aisle, so that should tell you something. Don't run in the library unless you are trying to stop Big John from tearing someone into pieces.

     "Big John, I got this," the librarian said.

     "I'm gonna kill this guy," Big John said.

     The other man swung around, pointing a giant camera at the librarian.

     "Oh fuck," she said. She collected herself. "I mean, sorry, I meant to say what is happening?"

     The little man with the big camera pointed a finger at Big John and said, "This man is stopping me from my constitutional right to film in public."

     Big John raised a hand toward the finger. The librarian got between them before he could get a grip.

     The librarian said Big John, "I got this. Sorry, man."

     "I don't like to be filmed," Big John said.

     "I get it. Me neither. Go back to the computer. I'll see what I can do."

     The big man said, "I can still kill him later." Then he went back to the computer lab.

     The librarian turned to the cameraman. "Okay, so you can film in the library as long as you aren't annoying others. He was annoyed."

     "You can't stop me from telling the truth."

     "I also can't stop him from destroying you. Now, if someone asks you to stop filming them, please have the journalistic ethics to-"

     "You can't stop the truth. I see the patterns here. Now answer my questions, government stooge."

     "Okay, shoot."

     "You are trying to hide in plain sight. Okay, why are all the political and law books on the same shelves?"

     "You mean the subject order of the Dewey Decimal System?"

     "Or the DVDs and other books all shoved into different orders."

     "DVDs are by title and fiction books are by author. It's just the alphabet."

     "Sure, whatever, but what about-"

     "The carpet?"

     "Yeah, the… what?"

     "Come with me," the librarian said. She walked the camera man to the back corner of the library and pointed. "Look there. Point your camera at the carpet in the corner and wait. Don't look away."

     The cameraman focused the large camera on his shoulder at the library carpet. The carpet weaved by a thousand nude blind archivists in the back of a library conference decades before. A thruming sound came from somewhere. The librarian watched the patterns form as they were perceived. The camera cracked and fell to the man's feet. A small sound matched the trickle of blood that dripped from his eyes. 

     "Come," the librarian said while taking the man's hand. "Let's talk to the director."

     The director would not be happy the man could no longer scream but would eat just the same.