Businesswoman Chapter 97

In her mind, she felt light. It was a clear, clean lightness that Loreen always sought to feel. When she traveled to the private library, this sensation overwhelmed her. The smell of paper and the sweet, hushed atmosphere beckoned her to enter through those doors.

At first the library had been subscription based but then it became a private, free library when donors like herself poured in funds to make it fully accessible without anyone paying a dime…except for those with fines, of course. The quiet power of this space offered her the ability to reset. She became a nun in a monastery; she morphed into the chaste figure in the galaxy of words and bowed in deep contemplation at all the books she’ll never get to read.

This didn’t sadden her, it only emboldened her. She lived for cracked spine sounds of a new book and the delicate pages of tomes from years past. She picked up a blue Classics edition which carried over fifty tales.

The anonymity of just perusing through the aisles, bumping into pushcarts, enlivened her. A smile curled around her mouth with the pure addiction to the written word. The books she wrote existed in the Business section and not as part of her own collection at her request. It wasn’t modesty or humility that drove her to ensure the staff do that. She was about business and anyone interested could find her work amongst fellow authors.

She then turned a corner and found her favorite literary fiction. She always thought about the Russian novels and the biting cold that one felt at reading those great works of literature. She chose one but the pages had been blanked out. All of them had been. Loreen’s mind reeled. Her footsteps guided her to the main desk.