Laughter in the Library
Maria and Jane; Learning Comes in Public Spaces and Gazes
Maria pulled the car door open and jumped into the passenger seat. It was hot outside and she gave Jane a desperate look. Jane turned the knob forward on the air conditioning. Through the vents, cool air traveled across Maria’s skin. She dropped her shoulders a bit, leaning back in her seat with an umph.
After Jane picked up Maria at her apartment, she drove them to the library.
Jane and Maria both worked as remote writers and editors. During the week, they worked at coffee shops together. When the perpetual cost of tea, muffins, and the occasional cookie became too much to bear, they decided to work in the library instead.
At the library, nothing was asked of them. There was no pressure to purchase. Rather, there were rows of thick invitations, beckoning visitors to learn something new, only with the cost of time and effort. In these, Maria and Jane were rich.
Maria and Jane wandered through the library, scanning each table for two empty seats. A woman in a satin maroon blouse strolled past them in heels, carrying three magazines, and the scent of perfume lingered in her wake. A father led his daughter through the children’s section, hand in hand.
Near the front desks, a few public computers waited for someone to come and awake them from their slumber. The space was cluttered with people. Everyone was half-bent over the dusty keyboards with thick round headphones covering the entirety of their ears. All except for two.
Facing the computers, a couple sat together and chuckled. The woman’s skin was a leathery brown. She wore a bright blue t-shirt, ripped jeans, and her hair was in two unkempt braids. The man’s skin was slightly darker. He was draped in a large dark green t-shirt and long jean shorts which went down to his knees. He had a thin covering of hair on his head, dark brown and dotted with several grey curls.
Maria could not be sure if they both carried loud laughs or if the noise was only immense in comparison to the library’s subtle sounds, the flipping of pages, the clicking of the keyboard, and the whir of the fans.
Finally, Maria and Jane settled on a table in the middle of the library, enclosed by bookshelves and desks, behind the computer stations. They sat on the same side of the table and pulled out their laptops.
“Jane,” Maria whispered, “Look at that couple.”
Jane looked around and Maria pointed just enough so Jane could see.
Jane smiled as she saw them and thought of her own husband at work in San Diego for the afternoon. Maria looked at them and smiled too.
In Maria’s gaze, there was a hint of sorrow. The sorrow resembled a potent aftertaste, experienced when, between bites, one takes a moment to think.
Maria’s laptop went to sleep as she peered over it’s metallic edge.
The couple at the computer station roared. The man was toppled over now, holding his gut, and the woman was giggling at his amusement. From a distance, it looked as if they were playing a computer game, something, not funny at all, like pinball.
Maria was always surprised by the unhindered laughter of those who appeared to have less. There’s a rumor that they are always the unhappy ones. Yet, Maria noticed, for some reason, they always seemed to laugh a little louder, more unbridled than the rest.
All of a sudden, a man with thick glasses and a lanyard noticed the commotion. He came out from behind the desk, strolled over to them, and shoved his index finger against his chapped lips. He gave them a stern look and the couple grew quiet. He scratched his head, covered in silver wisps as he went back behind the desk.
The woman looked frightened by this inaudible reprimanding. Then the man’s hand slid in the space between her back and the chair and she shifted a little, leaning into his palm. Her body relaxed and they looked at each other, saying nothing, speaking clearly through their gazes.
Maria looked down at her keyboard and hit the letter “I” with her finger. As her screen brightened, Maria turned to look at Jane, who was typing, working ever so diligently now with her headphones in both ears.
The man behind the desk continued to eye the couple at the computers. It bothered Maria to see him do it.
Upon smelling potent perfume, Maria turned around and noticed the woman in the maroon blouse moving towards her and Jane. When she trotted by their table, her heels clacked and she smacked her gum.
Maria watched her walk around with the same three magazines clutched at her side, and tasted that familiar sorrow again.
The feeling clung to the roof of her mouth and she considered bothering the high heeled woman for a piece of gum. Maria wondered if the awkward request would make them both burst into laughter like old friends, strangers, laughing too loudly in the library.
