Librarians | Stozier

04

"Name?"

"Richie Tozier."

Stanley looked at him without moving his head. "Full name."

He sighed. "Do I have to say?"

"It's a very strict requirement, yes." It wasn't, actually, it just interested him that Richie didn't want to tell.

"Richard Maurice Tozier." Stan tried not to laugh, causing a loud grating choke to come from his nose. He bit down on his lips to keep himself from smiling. "It's a family name!"

He entered Richie's full name into the computer. "Age?"

"Sixty-nine, asshat, what do you think?"

He typed in 17. Before hitting enter, Stan walked over to the supply closet and opened a clean, new bag full of blank plastic cards. This was one of his favorite things to do, the bag always crinkled in such a nice way. He slipped one out and into the slot, pursing his lips. Looking over at Richie once again, who was annoyingly leaning against the expensive printer, he sighed.

"You're gonna need a name tag, too. I'll let Mr. Ford know."

"Great, 'cause I want all the ladies who come in to ask for Richie at the front desk." Stanley rolled his eyes and printed Richie's card out, handing it to him. "Thanks, pooch."

"Don't lose it."

"Come on, I'm not gonna lose it. You have such little faith in me." Stan only stared back at him, figuring maybe not responding would get him to stop talking. He was wrong. "I want a tour of this fine institution! Lead the way, Captain!"

He jolted from the sheer volume Richie spoke. "You have eyes, walk around." He set off to the common area, Richie following him like a dog.

"Aw, come on, curly. It won't take that long," he pestered. "You don't want me getting lost in here, do you?" Richie stood behind the large desk, observing all of Stan's neatly placed books and writing utensils. It was a nearly ten-foot semi-circle with a wooden bow ledge along the inside, a filing cabinet full of dated book cards on either end. Stanley's rolling chair was the only one populating it at the time.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" He asked dryly, facing away from Richie in his chair. His patience started to run short.

"Come on, boss. You gotta give me something to do."

Stanley looked around the room, seeing only half of it scattered with decorations. He stood up and opened a drawer full of construction paper, pulling out brown and orange sheets.

"Come on." He walked to a circular table and set down the papers, along with a pair of children's scissors, a permanent marker, and a paper leaf. Richie sat down on a short school chair, feeling a bit undignified. "Trace this on the papers and cut them out. Make sure you start from the corner, or else you'll be wasting."

"Sorry, what is this for?"

"Fall decorations. People love that shit." Stan removed his arms that were straightened out to lean on the table and walked away.

Something about hearing Stanley swear made Richie feel better about his new job. He continued to find himself peering at the front desk to see Stan's curly hair poking out above his computer screen when he should've been cutting out leaves.

After nearly two hours passed, Richie, who had fallen asleep tracing, was waken up by an abrupt thud on the table in front of him. He jolted out of his sleep to meet a large book in front of him titled, "The Dewey Decimal Classification System and Differentiating Genres".

Stanley's clear voice could be heard behind him, sounding a bit closer than it actually was. "Read this." He picked up the materials from the table.

Richie only looked back up at him and smiled. It was a scarily genuine one at that, not even mischievous, making Stan almost feel like Richie could see through his clothes. He couldn't tell the intentions behind it, thinking maybe Rich was only joking.

He squinted and turned around, feeling strange. The dark blue light outside the windows made the room look yellow in contrast, causing him to feel worse, even a bit dizzy.

Sitting back down to count the papers, he found that there was exactly 86 leaves. He smiled, a sense of relief washing over him.

His watch beeped 12 times at 6:00, causing him and Richie to clock out. As Stan was swiping his employee card, Richie examined it and found that it didn't include his middle name.