Returns: - Two Library Trilogy short stories by Lawrence Mark

Author:Lawrence, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

About Pain

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

“What’s the book about?”

Holden looked up, grateful of the chance to stop his repetitions on the leg press so soon. He’d set the key so he would lift a small but at least not embarrassing chunk of the stack of weights, only to discover that the first press took most of what he had.

His mouth, open with his reply, stayed open but silent. The girl, early twenties, surely no older than him, was arresting. No better word presented itself. Arresting in a way that bypassed the dark cloud that he had no more chance of lifting than all the weights in the gym.

“I … uh.” Holden tried to kickstart his tongue into action.

Another good word would be “magnificent”. Holden wasn’t by nature or nurture given to the objectification of women, but here it was simple truth. She was so far out of the ordinary that some recognition of the fact was needed.

“I…” He was aware now that not only was the girl watching him, he had a large audience of those working the machines nearby. Several of the men had even stopped their reps to stare. The question on their lips would, of course, not involve the book. They’d want to know what the towering redhead wanted with the newbie who struggled to lift a quarter of the weight stack.

The girl, surely the hardest bodied of all the hard bodied women to have ever entered the gym, bent and picked up the book in question. She was well over six foot and the face that her wild mane nearly obscured was frankly too intimidating for Holden to ascribe any other quality than ‘intimidating’ to it.

“Catcher.” She read the title.

“Y… yes. They made us read it in school. I hated it.”

“Why are you reading it now then?”

“I’m not. I’m taking it back to the library after my … workout.” He felt self-conscious and the anger he’d been trying to rid himself of flared again. Who the hell was this girl with her washboard abs and too many questions? He always told himself he hated pushy people – though the truth was that it took a lot of pushing to be his friend. He stuck out a hand for the book.

“Why did you take it out then?” She showed no inclination to return it.

“I didn’t.” Holden stood from the machine feeling exasperated. Also, sweaty and stupidly embarrassed that she was taller than him. A rare occurrence. “I didn’t take it out. My … my dog found it.”

His story didn’t make sense out under the gym’s harsh fluorescents, but the truth had made less and less sense to him recently. Volente had padded silently into his bedroom and dropped the book – mysteriously entirely free of slobber – at his feet. It wasn’t the first time the dog had brought unasked-for books to him or his parents.

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