|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- IRREGULAR SHIRT--CUP 9--"THE ROOMS" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Irregular Shirt  ||  -------> (Cup SRis009, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Doug Brine sat in the Thatterine College Library at a partially enclosed desk, next to a balcony, trying to read from a history text, but finding it difficult to concentrate. He looked down at the reading area below, then across the space to the stacks on the opposite side on his level. Then, seeing something on the edge of his vision, he looked up two levels and saw Sally Sust there, waving her arms at him. Then, seeing that she had gotten his attention, she motioned with her hand for him to go up there. She expressed urgency in her motions, and Doug responded by holding up one finger in a "just a second" sort of way, gathering up his books, and heading over the stairs. Going up the stairs, Doug dropped several of his books, but gathered them up quickly and headed toward the spot where he had seen Sally. As he approached the spot, however, Sally was nowhere in sight. He walked up to the balcony and looked around. He then saw Sally way back in the stacks, again motioning for him to follow. He started towards her and she disappeared around a corner. He continued on towards where he had just seen her, and then, as he came to that point, he again saw her in the distance, further back into the stacks. The stacks which were now so high they resembled more of a forest than the internals of a library. He began moving towards her again, but this time she stood still. He approached her. "What's up?" Doug asked. "Shhhh. We have to be careful." Sally cautioned. "Okay." Doug said in a quiet tone. Sally stared at him for a few moments, then looked around, apparently thinking. "Doug, we found some rooms--they seem to be designed into the architecture of this place as to be unnoticed--we don't think anyone's been in them for a long time." "Yeah? You and who else?" "Well, me and Andrea for now." "What about Yage?" "We tried to call but you were both out. And I haven't seen him all day." "Yeah this is just the sort of thing he'd be into." "You wanna see 'em?" Sally asked. "The rooms?" "Yeah dummy, the rooms." "Of course!" "Okay come on!" Sally grabbed Doug's arm and pulled him along with her as she led him back into a dimly-lit area of stacks. She looked around, and then leaned down and started removing books from the bottom of a shelf. She looked up at Doug and said, "In here." With that, she went down on all fours, and then flattened her body out and wiggled into the shelf until she was gone from view. Doug looked at this with a puzzled expression, as it looked quite comical. Then Sally peeked her head out from where she had entered and said, "Come on! Don't be chicken!" Doug then knelt down next to the shelf and Sally slid back into the space. Doug then bent down further and saw Sally crouching inside a very dimly lit space, but he did see a few patches of sunlight behind her. "Come on, hey?" she said. Doug first passed his books in to her and then reluctantly crawled his way into the space. Sally moved aside as he did this. Soon he was inside a room with a normal-heighted ceiling, lit by some sunlight coming in from gratings up above. He stood up and began looking around. As he did, Sally went partially back out of the opening, apparently replacing the books she had removed from the shelf. "I can't believe no one ever found this place." Doug said quietly. "Well, I think people may have found THIS room, anyone studying 'relational abellophremy', that is." she said, reading the title page of one of the books " But you must admit you'd have to be pretty astute to notice a space behind the books." "Hmm." "But this isn't one of the rooms I was talking about " Sally said as she got up. "This'd be a cool place to hang out after the library closes, huh?" "Sure would." Doug said, thinking immediately of using the space as a sex nest of some sort. Sally crossed across the room and knelt down by one of the corners. "Over here is where the good stuff begins..." she said, and then lifted up the carpet at the corner, revealing a wooden floor. She then stuck her finger into a hole in one segment of wood and lifted up the whole board, trying hard not to make too much noise. She looked up at Doug. "See? This is where it gets interesting." she said. Doug crossed over to the corner and looked down into the space revealed under the floor--it was a concrete surface about three feet below the floor he was then standing on. Sally then went down into the space. "We have to crawl for a little while here." she said. "But you go first, cuz I have to replace the board after we go in." "Why? Who'll come in?" "I don't know, but if anyone sees those books out there messed up, they might look in here--and if they do, I want to keep this part a secret." "Okay, no problem." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----