Who Are The People At Your Library?

I'm singing the post title to Sesame Street's Who are the people in your neighborhood and it's making me smile! That's not the reason for this post however.

Have you ever wondered about the people you meet or see at your library? (I don't any more, I actually haven't for years, because I know more than I want to about them.) Well, I want to share with you about three people that come to the library. These men would be Chester, Gabriel and Linus.

Let's start with Chester. In a few short words I can sum him up. He's a pedophile waiting to happen. This man is very unkempt. He reminds me of The Twits by Roald Dahl. He's just gross looking like that. He's probably homeless and definitely should be on some sort of medication. This man loves looking (aka staring) and talking to little kids. He's even remarked, in his creepy way, "Aren't children some of God's most beautiful creations." It would be a harmless statement coming from some kindly little old man, but from Chester it's just a little disturbing. Unfortunately, he has done nothing wrong, so we can't kick him out of the library. He has been banned from the children's and young adult sections, although, that doesn't mean he won't try to sneak into them anyway. Some of the librarians have even gone so far as to solicit complaints for him. As in, "Ma'am is this gentlemen making you feel uncomfortable? Would you like to fill out a complaint form or do you want us to call security?" Yeah, he makes you feel real safe when you take your children to the library.

Then there's Gabriel. This is not his real name, but it doesn't really matter. I don't know it anyway. This man looks semi normal - as normal as you can get being crazy. He will sit down and read a book and generally be a model patron. Every so often though, the Angel Gabriel will fly over and talk to him. Yeah, you read that right. When Angel Gabriel is flying towards him this man pretends that his hand is the Angel Gabriel and is flying to him. Although to him it's not pretend. And when he's flying our crazy is just staring at his moving hand, almost transfixed. Then Angel Gabriel starts to talk. Make a fist, stick out your index and middle finger and cross them and point them towards yourself. That is what this man looks like when the Angel Gabriel is talking to him. However, unlike the flying, his hand does not move when the Angel is talking. No, the crazy is staring at his hand and squirming in his seat. And to answer your other question, yes, he talks back to Angel Gabriel. Then when the conversation is done, the Angel Gabriel flies away and our crazy goes back to what he was doing - usually demurely sitting and reading a book. It's really something you need to see for yourself to get the true absurdity of it.

Lastly there is Linus. As far as I know Linus is not his real name, it is just our nickname for him because this man carries a pillow and blanket wherever he goes. That is not the weird part though. No, this man has serious commitment issues and phobias. He will walk in the front doors into the building (he's not actually in the library itself yet) take a few steps, stop and then walk back out the doors - backwards. Then a few minutes later he comes back in and goes a bit further and then stops and backs up. This happens several more times. It can easily take this man 20 minutes to cross the library threshold and pass through the security gates. When I last saw him he stepped over the threshold and then backed up to the main walkway in the building and turned to the side and walked back and forwards there for awhile. eventually he does make it into the library and once inside, he's fine.

Now imagine one day a lady comes to the library with a couple of kids and makes to walk through the security gates. There are five gates and therefore four passageways. In one passageway is Chester, transfixed by the little children he sees. In another is Gabriel talking to his Angel and behind him, in the same passageway is Linus. It's not yet time for Linus to go backward, so he's cussing at Gabriel wanting him to move. Gabriel, however, is entirely focused on his Angel and won't move. This woman kind of pauses as she approaches the library and you know in her mind she's wondering if she should come in or if she should come back later. She came in, but honestly, I'm not sure I would have made the same choice.

So, those are the people at the library!