Reggie on Location: Filos Gone Wild*

I work one Sunday a month.  It’s a half-shift really, four and a half hours.  While I don’t enjoy giving up my Sunday, it’s not bad as shifts go—we’re usually pretty busy so the time goes by fairly quickly.  Plus, I get a day off during the week if I’d like.  All in all, not a bad deal.

This past Sunday was my Sunday to work.  We were busy, as usual, and by the time five o’clock came, I was ready to head home.  My commute is 30 minutes, and by the time I got home, grabbed my bag, and got out of the car, I knew something was missing.  My bag felt too light.  Imagine if I left my planner at work—that would suck, I thought.  Horrified, I looked in my bag and realized that indeed, I had left my planner at work!  Now, if it were a normal weekday workday, I would have driven back to get him.  But being Sunday, the library was now closed and I wouldn’t be able to get in.

Here I am, a Sunday night, without my planner.  How am I going to do my weekly planning session?  Not to mention, I feel so naked and vulnerable without him.  How will I survive the night?  I suddenly remembered that I wasn’t scheduled to go until 1 pm the next day, which meant more time apart.  But at least I hadn’t taken the day off as I usually do—normally, when I work a Sunday, I take the next day off.  Thankfully though, I had a class to teach and had to be there.  That’s something at least.

Upon my arrival at work on Monday, I saw Reggie lying on my desk, right where I had left him.  I can’t believe I forgot to put him in my bag.  But it gave me peace knowing that he had been on my desk, in a locked room where he was safe and sound.

However, that’s not exactly what happened.  I had left him at the reference desk, out in the open, unlocked and unsafe (yes, the library was closed and locked, but still).  The morning desk staff lovingly placed him on my desk, knowing that I was beside myself without him.  I felt terrible for leaving him so exposed.

But then it dawned on me—Reggie, who is quiet and content, often gets ideas from his big brother Malden.  I was immediately skeptical of Reggie’s innocence.  I checked the video surveillance and this is what I found:

Reggie lays docile on the wooden reference desk, next to the computer the way he always does when on reference duty.  Kanalt has left is seems, the lights are out.  All is quiet and dark.  Have I been left, he wonders?  It would appear so.  You know, he thinks, I’m tired of being the good brother.  I have to make up for all the shenanigans my brother Malden has created.  Now that Kanalt is away, I think it’s time to play.  Reggie gets up.  Looks around the reference department, decides the coast is clear and takes a flying leap off the reference desk.

Being as there isn’t a camera in every location, Reggie’s every move is not recorded.  But we catch small glimpses of what is going on in the stacks.

• Reggie wheeling through the building on a book cart.  It looks as if there’s some sort of race going on—who can drive the fastest from the reference department all the way down to children’s while avoiding the audiovisual collection and the circulation desk—Reggie or the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living?  (I knew that Martha Stewart was trouble!)
• Once in the teen department, Reggie thought he could talk his way into Bella’s heart.  But that damned Edward has such a hold on her.  This is why Reggie is now a member of team Jacob.
• He took a turn on the children’s airplane rocker—that was a little boring.  He wanted something with a little more grown up fun.
• There he is, on the copy machine, copying his bare inserts.  Bad boy!
• Next we see Reggie at the card counter—yes, there’s a video camera there for library card pictures!  This was not an innocent game of fashion show.  Here we see Reggie and that man-eating broad from Horrible Bosses taking dirty pictures!  How dare they?!
• Suddenly Reggie is gone.  Where is he?  What’s that we see?  A flash of something coming from upstairs.  We can’t tell where he is tho—wait!  I see his snap opening in 613.96!  For shame!
• Now what is that binder up to?  He’s walking to the back—he must be hungry, for now he’s in 641.664.  Too bad there is no stove at the library…
• And to quench his thirst, he stops briefly at 641.22.

Now, after sliding down the banister, he’s ambling back to the reference department, seemingly spent from his escapades.  He stretched his leather before climbing back up to the desk and settling in for the night.

They’ll never know, he thinks.  They’ll never suspect.

Oh, if only he knew.

*Title credit given to Zeitgeist of Zoe for her suggestion.  =)