Automated Card Catalog, Part 2: "Gold Cheer Beaches"
The Black Void - Episode 387
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It's a creepy feeling. Someone, or something, wants me here, and doesn't
want me to leave. This thing--whatever it is--knows something about me
that I don't. But what? What secret do I hold that it doesn't want me to
find out? Or, perhaps less creepily, what purpose do I have here that I
couldn't fulfill in the real world?
Lost in these thoughts, I barely notice James tapping my shoulder. "It's the same slip you got, Holly. I don't know if it's because the book really is lost or because it still senses your presence here." We stand together on this impossibly high ledge, only a few inches apart, both with perplexed looks on our faces. After an awkward silence, I get an idea. I take a pen and notebook out of my shoulder bag and quickly copy the slip of paper, word for word. Then I put the slip back in the slot and watch as the slot empties. I take the book out of my shoulder bag and enter its title into the catalog. Gold Cheer Beaches, I copy from the spine. What would have been the jacket cover is gone; the front is only a solid black. After a few seconds another slip appears in the slot. I show it to James. Book: Gold Cheer Beaches Author: Arthur Dodge Flassot Four Copies in Existence Copy 1 Status: Upper left quadrant, Row 128, Shelf ZXXL Copy 2 Status: Lost Copy 3 Status: Upper left quadrant, Row 128, Shelf ZXXL Copy 4 Status: Checked out to Holly Jordan Please put this slip back in the slot when done reading. Thank you. I didn't check the book out. I took it off the shelf, sure--no, wait, James took it off the shelf. I'm just holding it. The book's not even out of the library. Odd. I copy the slip again, then replace it in the slot. I have one more thing to try, though, before I'm done with this machine. "Hold this," I say, hand with book outstretched. James seems to understand what I'm doing, and obliges. I repeat the process. Same slip. I put it back in the slot and ask James to repeat the process. Once again, the same slip. Someone, or something, wants me to have this book. But what for?
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unknown adventurer
12/15/2004 1:23:09 AM
Extending Enabled
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