Obviously Me

Chapter 2: Library Horoscopes with Haimi and the Pumpkin Spice Cupcake

Chapter 2

The next day, my book-loving Indian friend, Haimi, gives me a call. She wants to know if I want to go what she calls "library pouncing" with her.

Let me explain.

Library pouncing is not exactly what you're probably thinking. If it involves attractive librarians, do me a favor and completely erase that from your mind. Thanks.

Basically, on a rainy day, Haimi likes to go to every librarian within a 100-mile radius and get a book from a random genre. Then she reads the first word of a random chapter in the book and somehow pieces them together to make a sentence for her "horoscope". Believe me, it surprisingly works.

"Please, please, please, Mi!" Haimi begs. Her voice is thickly accented. "I need company and I cannot library pounce alone. It is unethical."

"I'm not even out of bed yet," I say, yawning. "Are you seriously up already?"

"Maybe."

"Fine. I'm getting up. As long as you take me to Publix afterwards. I need to get a fruit tray. My brother is coming back from a business trip and I'm in charge of buying fruit for him and Teresa."

"Deal! Meet me . . . at . . . the haunted library downtown. Bring an umbrella, Mi, because it is raining."

I look at my window and groan. It's pouring. "On second thought, Haimi, I'm not feeling very well."

"Get you and your grammar-loving ass out of that bed before I come over and make you do it!"

"I'm up, I'm up."

"No you are not."

I get out of bed. "I am now, Haimi."

"Do twenty jumping jacks before you do your little morning routine, Mi. See you at the haunted library."

"Ok." I blink, sleepy. "Bye."

"Bye, Mi-Ray-Ay!"

I hang up. Of course Haimi wants to go to the haunted library.

The haunted library is haunted. Well, according to Haimi and Sobo (grandmother in Japanese), it is. As the "legend" goes, a man was murdered inside the library downtown, which also happens to be the oldest building in our entire town. His ghost haunts the 100-year-old library. His screaming can be heard in the stairwell that winds up to the tippity-top floor. I, for one, have never heard Old Man Johnston's ghost screaming. But Haimi has. Her and Sobo are very close. Sobo and Haimi knit together on Sunday afternoons and Sobo fills Haimi up with phony information, like Old Man Johnston in the haunted library downtown. Also, Sobo talks to Haimi about when the streets were paved, all about segregation, and when the devil's drink (aka coffee) was invented.

So, basically, Sobo believes everything she hears, from the end of the world in 2012 to The Walking Dead being a true story.

I slip on skinny jeans, flip-flops, and a loose t-shirt; I put my midnight black hair back in a ponytail. Then I head to the library.

---

Haimi is standing outside of the haunted library, nibbling on a cherry Twizzler when I arrive.

"Finally, Mirai the Adorable Japanese Girl gets to the haunted library, a building built in the late eighteen-hundreds, haunted by the ghost of Old Man Johnston. She and Haimi the Sexy Hindu in a breathtaking sari plan to stay the night." Haimi gasps dramatically. "And. . . . SCENE!"

"Haimi," I say with an eye roll. "Stop watching Ghost Hunters."

Haimi plants her hands on her hips. "They are my life, Mi-Mi. One cannot simply stop watching Ghost Hunters. If you would begin to watch, you shall understand."