Forgive the Fugative

Once a week I visit one of the other foster care sites in my agency, just to touch base with workers and gather documents relevant to adoption. Right across the street is my local public library. Now, as my mother is a librarian, I've always loved to be in libraries, but this particular public branch plagued me for a little over 4 years. Every week when I went to do my site visit, I felt like a fugitive, sneaking by the guard tower. I had visions of searchlights suddenly focusing on me and a loud voice booming over a PA system: "Give us back our book or pay your fine!"

Simply put, I borrowed a book in 2005 which has sat on my bookshelf ever since. The local branch is a mere 10 minute walk from my house, and even less on the bus. But, I'm sad to say, none of that mattered much. I just let the book sit. I only received one call back in September 2005, but never heard from them since. So I decided to let it go. Now this isn't the first time I've "forgotten" to take back a library book. The last big incident was a children's book that had been borrowed in 1991 that I never took back and didn't show up at the library until 7 years later. The result of that incident was that the entire library record system crashed not 10 minutes before I got to the desk and they re-registered me instead of waiting for the system to come back online. Technical malfunction, or divine intervention? Either way, I knew I was one lucky girl, especially since I overheard a guy in front of me having to pay $85 in fines.

So, I let it go this time, as well. Until 2o10, that is. I mean, I was going on 5 years that I had not been to a public library and it was getting to be ridiculous. This still feels like a recession, whatever Wall Street says, and I just can't afford to buy every book I want to read. So, I gathered my courage and went to the library at the end of one of my visits. I walked up to the desk and told the man behind the counter in an oh-so-innocent voice that I had lost my card (not a lie) and was wondering if I could get a new one. It took 3 or 4 minutes for him to look up my account, but finally he did.

"You have a fine on your account," he said. I inwardly sighed and realized I was not going to get out of this by any technical malfunction.

"I see. How much?"

"$28.00".

Okay. So 28 isn't half as bad as 85. I was actually quite relieved when he quoted me my fine. $28 is a lot of money to be wasted on an overdue book, but I paid it anyway and felt relieved. And I was able to borrow books right away! Let's just try to get these back on time..