After lunch, I'm back in the school office again, waiting for the job coordinator. When he comes, I see he's younger than the other staff guys, maybe twenty-five, but kind of tired looking, too. This place must be as hard on the keepers as it is on the animals. He looks through my job folder. "I think you'll like this. The librarian needs an aide. You'll work in the afternoons, every school day from one o'clock until four. You'll report in after lunch every day to Mrs. Morgan."

       When he opens the door to the library, I have to squint . Sun is coming in windows on two sides of a big room. For a minute it feels like I'm back in the library at Wheatland . The job guy leaves me standing in front of the checkout desk. Mrs. Morgan smiles at me. A real one, not a phony ‘I-got-to-smile-at-you-bad-boys-because-my-boss-told-me-to-smile.

       "Glad to have you, John. Have you every done any library work before?"

       I shake my head. Mrs. Morgan's some older than Mom, maybe. She seems like she's a real person, somebody you'd see in a regular library, not a Fire Oak guard kind. I look around and see shelves of books under the windows and clear up the inside wall. Seven or eight big round tables fill up the middle.

       "I'm new here, myself," she says. "Filling in for a while for the regular librarian who's on leave. I do know that I'm to keep a record of the work you do and turn in a weekly report."

       Wait'll McGill sees her report. I'll get tags like they've never seen before.

       "I'll work hard." I tell her. "You'll see."