The Library

A library card is a must while we are vacationing. It was two years ago I discovered that McCall Smith had not stopped at five books in The Ladies Number One Detective Agency series so serendipity took over and my reading plans for vacation changed. Books I had brought to read were set aside. Part of the routine at the library is checking out movies so we have something to watch in the evening, all together, when the activities of the day have come to an end. One evening after dinner we walked to the library, all five of us. The library is two blocks away just off the trail that runs along the ocean. We found a couple of movies to last until we returned home and then we walked back, all together, in the darkness and the warmth, feeling safe and contented. Because the readers in the family always have a book they’re reading Phil usually checks out two books.

Phil the nonreader now gets books without pictures he has found in the children’s section. He puts them on a shelf or in a drawer until it is time for them to be returned. Without being given the assignment Phil took it upon himself to be the person responsible for returning movies and books to the library, usually delivered while he was on his mandatory walk.