Swift as a Coursing River (LGBT+) | ✓

36. Beyond the ridge

Back in December, Edwin wouldn't have thought he'd ever be an activist like Vincent. Maybe he's not a real activist yet, and certainly not like Vincent, but he'd offered his help in February, when they'd been together for a while, and mentioned Mona's request to put him on the library program. It's taken a few months for Vincent to get back to him because they have their regular volunteers and they can't suddenly open up a new slot. But today is a Saturday morning during Easter break, and Mona is going to show Edwin and Caroline the ropes. Xe's very excited and has been texting Edwin pictures or titles of books, asking if he knows them. Unfortunately, Edwin's knowledge of books for children and teens is about two decades out of date, so he only knows the classics. It doesn't stop Mona when he tells xem that.

Somehow, in the past few months, they've stayed in touch and become friends. Xe has a similar sense of humour and xe likes some of the same books and movies and sometimes, xe reminds Edwin of Ellen, in xir interests and personality. As with Vincent, he's gotten used to xir looks (and pronouns), which are a confusing blend of masculine and feminine, and even though xe's more like Vincent than like Edwin and xe knew Vincent first, xe's Edwin's friend, not Vincent's. Caroline has joked that Edwin's been adopted by all the gender outlaws as an honorary member.

It took a bit more convincing for Caroline to join them today, since she doesn't like children as much as Edwin. But since Edwin got together with Vincent, it's been more of a puzzle to fit all his friends into his schedule — between work and family dinners and dates and rehearsals and trainings — so they haven't seen each other as often and that was enough of a draw.

They all arrive separately at the library, before it opens to the public, and Mona lets them inside with a badge, though there's employees preparing for the day. Caroline and Mona haven't met before, but within minutes they are chatting.

"So what are we supposed to do today?" Caroline inquires. "Edwin couldn't tell me anything except that it was activism and with children."

"Only part of it is with children. We have story times for children and teens later in the day, but we do more administrative stuff first." Mona shows them into a small office and takes out xir laptop from xir bag, showing them the login to xir library account. They go through the mailbox together, both some old correspondence and the new e-mails. It's mostly communications with different schools, about collaborations and logistics. The schools have the best chances of reaching the children and the parents, Mona explains.

"I know it's boring, but it needs to be done, " xe offers apologetically. "Next order of business is slightly more exciting." Xe pulls a cardboard box towards them and lifts it onto the desk. "Donations. The employees don't have time to process them, but we're volunteers, so we do."

The cardboard box is full of books that people donated to the library. Some are falling apart and Mona discards those outright. "There is no space for everything and people don't want to pull a book off the shelf if it has no spine." Xe holds up a book where the spine is indeed only precariously attached on one side and the pages have a brown stain. Some books, the library already owns and those are similarly discarded, except if they're highly popular, which they can check in the library system. Less than half the box is left after that, and there's one last step.

"The library has a policy about which books they want and don't want. So you need to check if these books match the criteria. You'll need to do the same for the other thing we do, which is acquisition suggestions."

"Like books with gay characters," Edwin says.

"Any kind of diversity or representation, really. Books or movies or games or music where people on the margins are put in the centre. Can be non-fiction, too."