Sweep it Clean!

Posted on Sat Nov 30th, 2024 @ 6:24 by Sarah Bright & Penny Gardner

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Library, Avalon Institute
Timeline: January 31, 1993
6383 words - 12.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Expectations of libraries tended not to differ. Their reputation for being quiet, orderly and generally staid was so widespread it spanned most cultures, continents, and even eras of history. Anyone expecting any of that from the Avalon Institute's library, however, was in for a major shock to the system... at least for today.

The first indication was the note outside the door, 'Beware of Gremlins!' hastilly penned on a small dry erase marker board fixed to one of the doors. Anyone brave or foolish enough to disregard the sign and continue on would be immediately greeted by the loud, whining din of a commercial-grade vacuum cleaner, competing with the fierce highland breeze as it howled through a sizable break in a pane of one of the library's large arch windows. The space was cold and drafty, and the room's heating baseboards were either switched off, or unable to compete with the invading winter wind. A tarp had been laid out on the floor at the base of the window, its edges raised and reinforced by a number of spare wooden boards so that it could collect and trap the raindrops that came in with the cold wind.

Despite the the awful racket there were several students seated at the tables, all giving a hero's effort as they attempted to tune out the distractions and focus on their reading and coursework, but the wind was clearly not pulling any punches as it blew unguarded papers and open book pages around.

Beware of Gremlins, indeed.

Penny had paused at the sign, but while she was never one to cause trouble, she was inherently curious and amused by it. For her a sign that promised gremlins was more of an invitation than a warding. As she headed towards the sound of a vacuum she gave a small nod to any kids that looked her way. Her hair was twisted up, and she had glasses perched on her head and a list in her hands. Pulling her cardigan to wrap more tightly around her and ward off the cold, she headed deeper in the chaos.

"Hello?" She called out, years of voice training and teaching meaning her voice carried clearly. "I was wondering if someone could help me?" Normally she wouldn't have dreamed of using her stage voice in a library, but she sensed this one might be a little different.

Wielding the loud vacuum and intent upon her task, Sarah didn't immediately hear the new arrival. The students heard her, but none appeared to have any special abilities that might help get the librarian's attention, and all seemed uninterested in wading across the ersatz baptismal pool separating them. They simply shrugged and returned to their studies. Except for one student, who picked up her eraser and tossed it at Sarah, hitting her square in her back.

"Who threw that?!" The librarian yelled as she spun around, the vacuum cleaner shutting off before she could readjust her voice to a more reasonable decibel. Several of the students flinched as they buried themselves further into their studies. The wind continued to howl through the broken pane. None of the students seemed willing to step forward, so the librarian's eyes stopped and narrowed upon seeing the new arrival, the only other person there who even remotely resembled an adult. Actually, maybe the only person. The students wore their uniforms, easily distinguishing themselves from faculty... except for Sarah, who was perpetually mired in her dark academia fashion phase. Her sweater was wine red compared to the students' grey, but her plaid skirt only differed noticeably to anyone looking for a comparison. Her black tights had dust stains from where she'd knelt with the vacuum, and her tired Converse low tops looked suitably reserved for janitorial duties, and not intended for daily wear (which they were), Her attire, combined with a dash of logic, could lead the new arrival to deduce that she was either a) child labor, or b) an adult with zero fucks given. The latter seemed more likely, given the jaded cast of her eyes, which suggested she'd seen her fair share of days like today.

The librarian-slash-custodian seemed to be doing some deduction of her own, or at least attempting to as she thumbed the eraser while eyeing the new arrival suspiciously. The eraser was heart-shaped, and flamingo pink. She turned abruptly and tossed it in the general direction of the only female student present, missing her completely. It hit a nearby globe instead, setting it on a slight spin.

"You're new." Sarah began, stating the obvious to someone who'd just arrived. "Maths?" She asked as she dropped the vacuum and approached, picking the role that seemed furthest from what felt like the best guess. Upon closer inspection the librarian looked quite damp, and her glasses had no lenses.

Penny quirked an eyebrow and spent a second where she tried to determine whether she should be offended or amused. Instead of ratting out the student who had tossed the eraser, she pointed back towards the direction of the door and its sign. “Gremlins?”

Penny then looked down at her clothing, grey turtleneck, navy slacks and character shoes and then back up at what she assumed was the librarian.

“Interesting, do I look like a maths teacher?” Then she decided to go with amused, and nodded at the vacuum. “Janitor?” She said, her lips twitching into a teasing smile. “I’m P-“ glancing at the students nearby she decided to change tack as she looked back at the woman in front of her. “I’m Miss Gardner. Could you point me in direction of the librarian? I had some plays I wanted to see if you had… for the maths class syllabus.”

"Aye, Gremlins." Was all Sarah said in response to the question about Gremlins. She made it sound as if that was all there was to say. She wasn't sure she actually believed in them, but they were a convenient excuse for just about anything that she'd picked up not from the somewhat-recent movie, but from older folklore from the Royal Air Force. Her uncle had served as part of an aircraft ground crew, and he'd said that whenever something went wrong that shouldn't have, and no explanation would suffice, Gremlins were surely to blame.

"We wear many hats." Sarah said next, as if she planned on continuing to be cryptic. "Today you're directing Hamlet. Tomorrow you're herding cats. Next thing you know you're teaching trig functions to a bunch of kids that probably know just as much about 'em as you." She smiled sympathetically. "Could be worse. You would be swabbing the poop deck while wearing a dartboard tee shirt around this lot.

"Sarah Bright, Jani...brarian." She almost winced. That had sounded wittier in her head. Aloud it just sounded dumb. She wasn't very concerned about revealing her first name in front of the students. Kids heard their parents and other adults introduce themselves to one another all the time. They knew which adults they were on a first name basis with, and knew the list was short. If any of the students called her Sarah, she'd just act like they were invisible until they got the name right. She moved to extend a hand, but then realized it was a bit damp. She went to wipe it on her skirt, then realized that wasn't any drier. Then she sighed. "What plays are you looking for, Miss Gardner, or can I call you P?" Her smirk was almost imperceptible, showing that at least her humor was still dry.

Penny simply took the woman's hand and shook it, not minding if is was a little damp or grimey. "Miss Gardener in front of the children is preferable." She said, and used her back stage voice so it wouldn't carry to the kids nearby. "But Penny if it's just us adults." She then dug into her pocket and pulled out a short list. "I was wondering if you had these? If not could we order a few of them. I am not sure what the class sizes are yet, but I can always make photocopies if need be. We will only be doing excerpts and then looking at the wider context for each."

The list she handed to Sarah was relatively short, there were the usual suspects one would expect of Senior class, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Arthur Miller. But then towards the bottom were a set of plays which were definitely not on the syllabus. Five plays which stood out, ranging from the Victorian period to the 70's; 'Justice' by John Galsworthy, Joan Littlewood's version of Brecht's 'Mother Courage and Her Children', Dario Fo's final version of 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist', 'Faith Healer' by Brian Friel and Frank Macmahon's adaptation of Brendan Behan's 'Borstal Boy'.

They were all unusual plays to share with children, and all had an undercurrent of grappling with with broad political themes of justice and oppression. Five plays where the central figures grappled within the restrictions and prejudice of a system not designed for their benefit. Some of the plays had even resulted in the playwrights having been censored, or far worse for expressing such views.

"The ones at the bottom might be a little... tricker." Penny said with a shrug. "One copy of those is fine, since I likely will need permission from Miss Cavendish before I can share them with the older children."

By the time they shook hands Sarah's mood seemed to have calmed a bit. The distraction from the mess, along with a chance to do her actual job, appeared to have a calming effect on the librarian... up until the point she saw the name Ben Jonson on the paper. Then there was a brief maniacal laugh, quickly bit off and followed by an awkward silence as she tried to pretend nothing had happened by closely inspecting the rest of the list. If she had any thoughts on the rest of the works written there, she didn't let them show.

"Most of our theater scripts are down in storage. They're almost all unlaminated softcover, and I've been reorganizing things so much in here lately, that I was worried about mishandling and damaging them. I can go check later on, or give you the key if you'd like to look sooner, but I can tell you now that I doubt we'll have most of those at the bottom." Sarah furrowed her brow in concentration as she tried to recall what she'd catalogued.

"We definitely do have Justice. Maybe Faith Healer. I remember seeing Shange's adaptation of Mother Courage off-broadway years ago, but I doubt we have any version of that script here. No clue about the others." Sarah shrugged, but then nodded with assurance as she continued. "We've got your big boys covered though." Sarah visibly swallowed, again displaying a strange nervousness.

"Really? I'll bet that was worth seeing. Off Broadway? So I am guessing you're American, and not Canadian then?" Penny asked with genuine curiosity, seemingly delighted to have met a fellow theatre goer. She was guessing the woman was from the East Coast judging by her accent, but first impressions could be deceptive. "Unlaminated soft cover is fine, really whatever you have on the list would be great. Most of the stuff outside of the heavy hitters is more to provoke discussion than anything else. Good to cover more than iambic pentameter, proscenium arches and soliloquies you know?" She then looked around. "My class load is a little light at the moment, would you like some help in reclaiming your domain from the Gremlins?"

"I am, though I spent most of my childhood here in the UK." Sarah nodded. On any day but today it might have been harder for someone to guess where she was from (by her accent, anyway), but today it was pretty easy. The Lincolnshire accent she'd possessed in her younger years was returning, but wasn't consistent. It took concentration to maintain, and was not quite authentic due to the fact that her vocabulary was rather lacking in regards to popular British slang and phrasings from the last two decades. Whenever she found herself stressed, however, she always seemed to revert to her native Boston accent, no matter how hard she tried to disguise it.

"To be honest I always kind of preferred the spectacle of the larger on-Broadway productions, but my mom liked more cerebral indie theater. We'd take the train to weekend in New York City once or twice a year and would usually end up seeing what I wanted to see the first day, then we'd spend the next roaming the city to find something more her style." Sarah hoped that would explain her slightly glazed look when Penny mentioned some of the more technical aspects of theater. She knew what those words meant due to her knowledge of Latin, but her education had specialized more in the Medieval era, a time when religion still dominated most areas of society, and people simply did not have the freedom to explore many secular themes. It was not known for being an exciting time with regards to theater.

Lost in thought for a moment on something smart to say, Sarah suddenly remembered that Penny had asked if she could help. Why hadn't she just started there? Sometimes she was so concerned with sounding bright, that she didn't really act it. "Your shoes will get wet." Sarah said with a few words of warning, which was rich coming from one in inner anguish over ruining yet another pair of thrift store Converse, which she now wore to work after losing dress pumps that cost more than a week's pay.

Penny looked down at her worn out character shoes and then back at Sarah. “Oh don’t worry about that, they’ve seen worse than a little water… unless that was a polite way of telling me to f-“ she cut herself off before she could swear and glanced at the children nearby guiltily. “Find somewhere else to be.” She cleared her throat and her cheeks turned pink.

“Plus I don’t have anymore classes for the day, so I might as well make myself useful.”

Sarah favored Penny with a faint, knowing smirk. Nice save. The expression spoke for itself.

"No, not at all." Sarah assured Penny with a small smile. "I'm just trying to spare you from the sink or swim philosophy that our beloved Institute seems so fond of introducing us to." She continued, sliding into perfect deadpan as she looked toward the reinforced tarp that was slowly but surely collecting pools of rainwater. "Or at least, not have it become associated with me." The librarian shuddered at the sight.

"I need to vacuum some more to get all the broken glass, and Mister McAvoy is preparing a piece of plywood to cover the broken pane. I've already moved everything irreplaceable, but I'm a little worried about that bookshelf there." Sarah pointed toward the one closest the window, sitting perpendicular to the broken pane. Sarah had initially thought it far enough away, but if she squinted she thought she could see faint beads of moisture on some of the exposed book spines. "If there's water getting onto the books there, could you please move them to one of the far tables? There's some towels and dust cloths over here on this one." She first gestured toward the far tables near the doors, then indicated the hastily assembled pile of cleaning materials near her. Thankfully most of the books were hardcover, and some even had protective laminate added to their dust jackets, but books in general didn't react well to water, regardless of their construction. "Stacks are fine. They don't have to be in strict order, as I'm going to have to resort them anyway. But obviously the work will be quicker if there's a semblance or order." Sarah shrugged. She was already resigned to that job. Right now she was mostly concerned with making sure none of the kids got cut by broken glass.

Penny hummed to herself and nodded, then dove into the work of moving books back and forth. Long legs ate up the distance between stacks easily and her height meant she could grab books from the top shelves without blinking. She did her best to try and keep some semblance of order to everything as the librarian had requested. Occasionally she got distracted by some of the titles, flipping them over to check the blurbs to see if any were worth coming back to when she had a spare moment. When she was done she came back to Sarah, and wiped her hands on her slacks. "You might want to wipe some of those down when you are putting them back into place." Dust and the fine misting of water had meant some of the books had a little grime to them.

"So gremlins huh? They often punch holes in the walls around here?" Penny quirked an eyebrow at the woman, and took a moment to help pick up some bits of broken debris which she then threw it in a rubbish bag.

Sarah regarded Penny with a hesitant look. It had been a student that had broken the glass, one who was having a bad day, but she didn't want to go into details in front of other students. It would make her look like a snitch. Of course as a member of the faculty she was expected to enforce the rules, but everyone knew she had less authority than the teachers, and no control over students' grades. Plus she got to see students in their own choice of groupings, instead of the same daily classroom arrangements. To most it went without saying that she often heard and saw things that that the other faculty members wouldn't normally be privy to. She wasn't going to risk that privilege by telling Penny that a boy with telekenesis had only meant to shove his book aside with a swipe of his hand, but his power misfired and he TK'ed the book off of his binder, which unfortunately served as a ramp.

"They do." Sarah said to Penny with an 'ask me later' stare. "They also throw things like books... and erasers." She raised her voice at that. "And watch your shoes. They also steal shoes." Suddenly Sarah smiled impishly as she changed tack.

"Hey Miss Gardener, want to play a quick game?" Sarah asked, knowing she sounded totally crazy. In truth the question was a diversion from Penny's line of questioning about what exactly had happened.

Penny simply shrugged away her previous line of questioning and nodded. “Sure, what did you have in mind?” Her eyebrows raised in obvious curiosity, although there was part of her that thought maybe the librarian might be a little… eccentric, she was willing to play along for the moment.

Sarah held up a finger, motioning for Penny to wait for a moment. She scurried off to a nearby stack and quickly returned, clutching a book to her chest. Her expression scrunched in concentration for a moment as she pushed her fake eyeglasses back up onto her nose. Without lenses, the frames carried little weight and were easily unseated. She smirked for a bare second before launching into a God-tier British game show host impression that would probably haunt her for years to come.

"And welcome back to Sweep it Clean, the game show where you win prizes by cleaning up messes! We have our final contestant here, Miss Gardener, who has so far shown us a truly masterful display of picking up books and putting them down. With the high score you have won our top prize, this fine copy of the Collected Works of William Shakespeare!" Sarah made a show of handing over the book to Penny, and nearly broke character when one of the students actually started clapping.

"But that's not all we have for you today. If you want, you can stop here and take your prize, free and clear. Or, you can stay and play in our bonus round, and go all-in for a chance at the grand prize! What do you say?"

"Go all in!" Another student called out to Penny in a loud whisper. A quick glance their way showed that all had turned from their studies to watch their librarian, who had just cleaned up one chaotic mess too many and was now seemingly in the midst of a psychotic episode.

Penny laughed an in the next moment her physicality had changed subtly. Holding the book to her chest, she did a passable Yorkshire accent as she grinned.

“Ah I think th’folks at home would bout forgive me if I gave up now. I’d like to go all in!” She then turned to an imaginary camera and waved at nothing. “Hi Ma, hey Da, hey uncle Tim, Aunty Ethel, hi wee Mary.” She could continue for a while if not interrupted.

Sarah almost lost it after hearing how quickly Penny settled into her role. As it was, it was all she could do to not bite her lip, which felt like the only thing that would keep her from laughing. Somehow, she managed to avoid doing either. She wasn't really sure why she was making a fool of herself by doing this--and let's face it, she absolutely was--but Penny helping her seemed like a good enough reason. But deeper down, perhaps without fully realizing it in this moment, maybe Sarah simply wanted to show her appreciation for what Penny did. Theater was a powerful thing, and these kids needed it; if not for the power of performance storytelling and the influence it could exert, or learning how to be and see the world as someone else, then at least there was the escapism of it. But Sarah probably wouldn't be mindful of any of that until much later... after the reviews of this afternoon's performance were in.

"And how excited they must be to hear you say that!" Sarah replied, her accent more like the BBC English she remembered being so prevalent on the television when she was a child. "Moving on, then." She continued, to keep Penny from including shout-outs for her imaginary distant cousins, friends and pets. She moved to one of the tables furthest from the exposed area of the library, keeping her attention on the fourth wall of course, and motioned for Penny to follow with guiding gestures.

"As you can see here we have three towels, all identical, and each swaddling mystery objects of differing shapes and sizes. Some are treasures, rescued in time from the rain. Others are not, and were simply in need of a good toweling off. Now Miss Gardener, here is your challenge. Imagine that no amount of sweeping could make this mess clean. You have time to rescue one bundle before fleeing. Which one would it be, bundle number one, two or three? Which one do you think is the grand prize?" Sarah ended with emphasis, trying to add to the drama as she motioned to the three bundles. All were rectangular shaped, like books or something similar, but all looked larger than most every other book in sight. Bundle number one, on the far left, was the smallest and thinnest. Bundle two, in the middle, was the largest and thickest. Bundle three, on the right, was something in between.

Penny did her best to keep a straight face throughout Sarah’s game show spiel, even going so far as to wave to the fourth wall ‘camera’ as they approached the desk. As she was presented with the choice she bit her lip and gave it the seriousness of a life or death choice.

She looked between the stacks and then with a grin manipulated the light in the room. Humming dramatic game show music under her breath as Sarah spoke, she bent the light so three spotlights appeared, one over each pile.

“Oh this always looks so much easier when you are at home watching on the telly. I know me old mum’ll be furious if I come home empty handed, hmmmm.” As she spoke her accent broadened to something less trained and more natural, her game show punter character now fully established.

“Well I think the big pile would be most people’s first choice, thinking size matters. But I can’t help feel that little one is hiding summin’. Why did summin’ so small get its own towel? That’s what I got to wonder you know?”

Sarah's eyes widened slightly as she saw the scene they were acting out come to life. For a split second she thought it might be one of the students messing with them, but something about Penny's body language as the lighting changed clued the librarian into the notion that it was probably her. That sort of ability was very on point for a drama teacher, Sarah had to admit. There was nothing about her own abilities that seemed to offer any benefit to her own chosen profession. If the librarian had been new to the school she might have commented on the impromptu set alteration, but unexpected revelations such as this latest one had almost become something close to routine. Though she didn't comment on Penny's light show, she did try and take advantage of it as she continued the charade.

"Sooo.... bundle number one, then?" Sarah said, keeping her tone mysterious, but perhaps betraying a clue by touching the bundle reverently. Or was it a trick? "Is that your final decision?" She added with an arched eyebrow and just the barest hint of judgement, purposefully and rather frustratingly trying to get her final contestant to second-guess herself, as game show hosts were of course likely to do.

“Statistically speaking there is just as much chance as it being bundle one as bundle two or three so yes. Yes I’ll pick that one please.” Penny said with a small smile. She had a stubborn streak a mile wide, but the stakes were low here, so it wasn’t hard to keep to her guess.

"Of course." Sarah said with a smile as she made a spectacle of preparing to pull back the towel. "Will bundle number one contain the grand prize?" She pulled back the towel just a fraction. "We'll find out after a word from our sponsors!" One of the students groaned loudly.

Thankfully Sarah did not act out the commercial break. Instead she pulled back the towel, revealing a slightly damp hardcover world atlas.

"Oh I'm sorry Miss Gardener, unfortunately this is not the grand prize." She said with a shake of her head. "But you'll still be going home with this deluxe and only slightly outdated world atlas, featuring the former Yugoslavia!" Just as Sarah seemed poised to finally put a merciful end to her short-lived acting career, she cocked her head and cupped a hand to her ear, as if straining to hear a distant sound.

"What's that? Our audience wants Miss Gardener to have another chance? I'm afraid you'll have to speak up!"

"YES!" Three of the four students present bellowed, clearly enjoying this. On the heels of their encouragement was a bored sounding, yet equally emphatic "NOOO..." That came from the girl who'd thrown her eraser at Sarah earlier.

"Well the ayes have it!" Sarah exclaimed, snapping her fingers as she struck a snazzy pose. "Miss Gardener, you have one final chance to claim the grand prize! Which one will it be? Bundle two, or bundle three?" By this point Sarah didn't even know who she was anymore. She just hoped this wouldn't lead to her getting fired.

As Sarah struck a snazzy pose, Penny made the woman sparkle. For a moment it was like her clothes and hair had been threaded through with glitter but really it was just an effect of the light. She grinned at the one student who disagreed with everyone else, Penny admired anyone with a stubborn streak coupled with enough bravery to do something different. “Okay well, we tried small so I say let’s go with bigger! I’d like to see what is behind towel, I mean curtain number two please.”

Sarah didn't notice herself sparkling. If she'd looked down at herself she might have, but instead her attention was focused on Penny, the table beside them, and their 'audience' consisting of a handful of students--basically everywhere but her. She did however notice that the students had noticed, and took their now-beaming smiles of delight as affirmation of her supreme acting talent. She fought the urge to butter it all up, as there was only so much she could do with this role. Her accent couldn't become any blander, and as for personality? She was a respectable game-show host, not a trashy daytime talk show host that required a on-stage security detail to keep her guests from each other's throats. At least she wasn't a contestant though. The students might get a sampling of her insanity with this act, but they'd certainly never hear her attempt at any sort of provincial dialect.

"Bundle Two it is!" Drum roll please." Sarah gestured to one of the members of her audience, who grabbed his and his friend's pencils and drummed them against one of his texts. She quickly pulled back the towel with dramatic flair and showcased the object with a flourishing of hands. It was a framed painting, a portrait of a stately man in the noble garb of centuries past.

"Ohhhhh, I'm sorry Miss Gardner, but this isn't the grand prize either! But it is a very nice painting, a former master of this fine domain, perhaps?" Sarah looked thoughtful, and for a moment almost broke character with the expression. For all she knew, perhaps the painting was the actual grand prize. It could've been commissioned by a famous artist, for all she knew. Good thing it hadn't actually gotten damaged, thanks to the protective glass pane within the modern frame.

Sarah gave Penny a moment to process the reveal, but not enough to give her the impression that there wasn't more drama to come. She leaned in closer to the drama teacher, and shifted her voice to a lower, consoling tone. "Are you ready to see what you left behind?”

Penny grinned and nodded, barely holding back her giggles at this point. “Ah I’ve really let the side down on this one. Gonna be hard to face the odd in the local when I get home.”

Sarah was more or less in the same boat, though instead of giggles, she was barely holding back the urge to bury her forehead into the palm of her hand. This might be fun and games now, but she was never going to hear the end of it, and it would likely weaken any position of authority she might've had with the students. But then again, the students already threw food and writing implements at her. This peanut gallery had been after her since day one of her employment here.

"Well here we are, Miss Gardener. " Sarah's persona took on a tone of gravitas that she didn't have to act. Yes, she was pretending to be a fake game show host, but this reveal was real.

"You've done your best to sweep this mess clean, and you saved what you could in the chaos of the storm. But not everything can be saved. Let's see what got left behind..."

As much as Sarah wanted to pull back the towel from the last bundle with dramatic flair, she just couldn't. She slowly eased it back, like one painfully peeling back a soiled bandage from an open wound. Underneath was a book... an old book, and one that was heavily damaged.

"And here... lies... The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, first folio edition, published in 1616." Sarah said, her act fading word by word, until she was back to being a tired librarian, simply presenting the book for what it was. If Penny had remembered Sarah's maniacal laugh upon seeing her wish list of plays, she now had an understanding of where it had come from. To be fair, the vast majority of the book's damage had come during the long march of years that had led up to what had happened today, but it was hard to ignore that it was noticeably damp, and speckled with tiny shards of broken glass. It had been secured within a protective case, but that had fared poorly against what had likely been half her weight in broken glass falling directly onto it.

Penny’s eyes went wide and she peered at the book. “This must be worth a small fortune!” Penny stooped, her tall figure looking almost comical as she blinked down at it reverently. “Can’t take this into a classroom of rowdy teens.” She mumbled, then reached out to touch it. However before she could make contact with it she realised how dirty her hands had been from helping tidy. “Ah might need to wash up before I look at it too. Do you have any less precious copies?”

Sarah had been both anticipating and dreading Penny's reaction to seeing the book--what was left of it, anyway. She'd anticipated seeing the awe, but had been dreading potential dismay and offense over seeing the book in its present state. The librarian didn't have the heart to tell the drama teacher that this particular copy was not worth a fortune. The cover was pitted and grimy, with obvious evidence of old water damage. There were a number of copies circulating on the market that were in much better condition, and with more interesting provenance. Sarah was by no means an expert appraiser, but with the experience and intuition she did have, she would expect the book to sell for several hundred pounds, maybe a thousand tops. It would cost far more to restore than it was worth. Still, for their means and purposes it was practically irreplaceable.

Noticing Penny's hesitation, Sarah motioned for her to touch it. "It's got plenty of dirt on it already. A little more won't hurt it much." She folded the towel neatly so that if Penny did decide to open the front cover, it would be nicely supported. "One of the work crews renovating the basement sublevels discovered it in a crypt that had been partially collapsed, in a broken chest at the foot of an unmarked tomb. We don't know who was laid to rest there, but I like to think it was a favoured bard that was invited to retire here."

"That's like something straight out of an Enid Blyton book." Penny said shaking her head amused, however now she had been given permission she opened up the old text and started to leave through it. "Oh brilliant, the Alchemist. That could be a bit of fun for the kids, balance out the serious stuff with some old fashioned farce. You mind if I borrow this to make some copies? I promise I will be careful."

Sarah's expression darkened for a moment at Penny's comment, not because she took it as an insult being likened to another storyteller, but because she had a difficult history with children's books. She'd suffered terribly from dyslexia as a child, and learning to... well, trying to learn how to read had been a torturous experience, especially in a 1970s era boarding school, where conformity was the norm and individual learning plans were almost nonexistent. She hadn't really become a functional reader until she was thirteen years old, which was coincidentally when her strange abilities came about. Thankfully Sarah realized she was scowling, and managed to shift to a more pleasant expression that unfortunately lasted only a few moments, sliding off of her face the moment Penny mentioned making copies.

"I absolutely do mind!" Sarah said softly, but with a firmness in her tone usually reserved only for students. She looked and sounded positively scandalized. The book was almost five hundred years old! The thought alone of flipping it over and flattening it onto a photocopier made her cringe. At best the spine would creak in awful protest. At worst... it would split apart at the seams, and the pages that didn't immediately fall loose would only be held together by the thin leather outer covering. She shook her head, as if to clear away the thought.

"You may borrow it, but no photocopies, please. There's a modern hardcover copy on the shelf somewhere over there that would be better for that." She pointed over toward one of the stacks. "The softcover scripts in the basement would be best, but I'm not certain the Alchemist is among them." Sarah's tone softened as she offered the alternatives. She didn't like saying no, but she was quite protective of the older books. She wouldn't even let the students touch them without close supervision.

Penny brightened, secretly glad to have the modern copy as an alternative. There was less pressure with that as an option. “Ah a modern copy would actually be much better thank you. That way I can leave this treasure in your care. Although thank you for sharing this with me.”

Sarah did her best to suppress a wince when Penny mentioned leaving the treasure in her care. The book was damp and sprinkled with broken glass... care indeed. Maybe the book needed a new home. Sarah didn't know what kind of man this Jonson fellow had been, bit she'd wager that he'd rather have his works in the hands of another playwright or actor. Certainly not a librarian who only acted to shift attention from the fact that she couldn't keep her shit together. But that was a consideration for another day. After all, Penny had given her an opportunity to appear at least moderately capable of her chosen profession. She'd best not waste it.

"You're very welcome." Sarah said with a smile that was warm, yet a tad weary. "Let's see if we can find what you came here for then."