Untitled - ScholarWorks Home - California State University, Northridge
Untitled - ScholarWorks Home - California State University, Northridge
Untitled - ScholarWorks Home - California State University, Northridge
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Bibliophile<br />
Candice Barrow<br />
LIBRARIAN: 60 year-old woman<br />
ARBY: 35 year-old man<br />
SETTING: Public library, several people sitting and reading some talking quietly to<br />
each other. LIBRARIAN stands behind information desk skimming a small book.<br />
ARBY walks up to the counter.<br />
ARBY: Excuse me,<br />
(LIBRARIAN looks up)<br />
(ARBY pulls out a handgun and points it at LIBRARIAN. She trembles violently)<br />
ARBY: I'm looking for a book, its called Eternal Star Fire by Maxwell Plunkett.<br />
You don't seem to have it o the shelf, yet your records indicate that it is in the<br />
library. This book is vital to both my sanity and your life. (LIBRARIAN grabs a<br />
book cart for support). Don't you understand? I need to have this book. It is vital<br />
to ... to everything! I can't go on if I can't get back into that world. I need to be<br />
in the Star Fire realm. I need to be in some other place. I just can't stay here! I<br />
need to be inside a book. I need to have a book inside of me! (Looks at LIBRARIAN)<br />
Haven't you ever caressed the spine of a hardcover book, savored its weight in<br />
your hand and marveled at the sheer number of pages? Haven't you ever<br />
mouthed the words so sweet that they were as a lover's lips? Haven't you ever<br />
stroked the pale paper and stared at the contrast of the black inky words until<br />
you couldn't make them out anymore? Weren't you ever sucked with agonizing<br />
pressure into a world that made this atrocity of an existence pale in compari<br />
son? Did you ever lose yourself in the creation of another's mind knowing that<br />
they used only paper and ink to bring you there to the brink of insanity, to the<br />
place where reality becomes fiction? When you were in that place, that world<br />
alive with such color and texture and adventure, did you want to leave? Did<br />
you want to be jarred back into this . . .. (Gestures wildly with the gun) This steaming<br />
pile of refuse built upon suffering and perpetuating only sorrow? (Pause) I need<br />
to have this book; I need to have a place to go in order to escape from this<br />
crumbling illusion of realism before it caves in on me!<br />
(LIBRARIAN fa ints)<br />
ARBY: (to the man at the circulation desk) Okay ... fine. Do you have any Danielle<br />
Steel?<br />
END<br />
47