Lonely Satellite by Richter Morgan

Author:Richter, Morgan [Richter, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luft Books
Published: 2013-10-07T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Laurie woke in the middle of the night to a crypt-still library. The darkness was disorienting; it took him a few moments to work out where he was and what he was doing there. He sat up on the sofa. After he’d fallen asleep, either Jonathan or Nicola had tucked a blanket around him. He groped around the floor until he found his sandals and pulled them on.

He could hear quiet, regular breathing. Jonathan must be asleep nearby. He sat in the darkness for a while until his eyes adjusted enough to make out a heap of blankets and pillows on the floor, with Jonathan presumably slumbering somewhere within.

He heard muffled noises, music, a radio broadcast maybe. Probably Nicola was hard at work, doing whatever it was she did here. Curious, Laurie went exploring.

The circulation desk and the reference room beyond it were dark, but a faint light shone beneath the closed door at the back of the small lounge where they slept. Laurie eased it open noiselessly and found himself in the library stacks. Claustrophobic and cluttered, with preposterously low ceilings and rows and rows of cheap aluminum bookcases overloaded with books of all shapes and sizes. The shelves nearest to him held skinny boxes filled with old, ragged magazines, most of which had ceased publication years before Laurie was born.

Laurie wandered around the maze of bookcases, trying to find the source of the music. He stood still and listened.

The noise came from above him. Definitely a radio, probably located on the next higher level of the stacks. He couldn’t find a staircase, but there was an elevator, flimsy and small, almost child-sized. He hopped inside and jabbed his finger at the worn button for the next floor up.

The door slid open to reveal a level very similar to the one he’d just left. Same low ceiling, same maze of cheap shelves. Low-dangling fluorescent lights bathed everything in a sickly glow. He followed the music until he found Nicola.

She was listening to an old cassette player, the sound muffled and scratchy. She sat on an overturned milk crate in front of a low desk, upon which were spread several yellowing newspapers. She paged through them methodically, lost in thought.

At his approach, she lifted her head and smiled. “Hi, Laurie. Couldn’t sleep?”

“Just felt like exploring.” He looked down at the newspapers. “What’s that?”

“Back issues of the Times. These are all from 2001, just before they shut their offices down for good.” She frowned. “Ideally, I should photograph these. Get them on microfilm, because we might have the last complete collection of back issues anywhere, and they’re not going to last forever. But that’s a project for another time.”

She gestured for him to come closer. “I had a thought earlier that I wanted to check out. You might be interested in this.”

Laurie stood at the other side of the table. Nicola rotated the newspaper around so he could see what she’d been reading.

He found himself staring at a photograph of his mom, taken before he was born.

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