dora

Her name is Dora and she’s the librarian at the school and she’s been that for almost 15 years, now. Before that, she was married, a mother and a lot of other things that now seem distant and almost imaginary. That was before the divorce and before Jim, their boy, died in Iraq. It’s been three years since all of that and the only reason she survived was the books. Not that she read them, for she wasn’t much of a reader. It was that she tended them. She cared for them They gave her something to do. Her doing that something gave her life some order. It may sound silly or simple or both, but it’s true. She used to laugh at herself: Mrs. Dewey Decimal. Today, just a few minutes ago, the principle told her that they were going to shut down the library. Not enough money to keep it going in these hard times. The kids would use the library across the street, in the high school. They would find something else for her, she was assured. But she knew they wouldn’t. Or was it: they couldn't.