Library Lady

"Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man- who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?"
-Maxim Gorky

We went along to the library last night and sat for close to two hours just reading and researching our respective favourite subjects.
I was not watching the clock, nor was Spouse and while I was burrowing my way through a shelf of magazines on the other side of the room I heard him advise a librarian that we were just leaving.
It seemed that we were indeed about to exit the building because they were going to close the building. Rather than inform them of my particular desire to remain in the library during the nightly period of closure, I scrambled to put some items back in their place while Spouse went downstairs to check out our chosen books. As a result he reached the main desk without me by his side.
The librarian, who we have not conversed with but who we see weekly through our habit of unfailingly and routinely taking copious amounts of books and films, looked at the computer as Spouse's card was scanned. She was shocked.
"Nothing on hold?" she asked, feeling that something was not right. We regularly have a selection on order.
"No, not today."
"How come?" She just had to know.
"The weather is much better and we've been walking a lot more. There's not much time for films."
She seemed to accept that very reasonable reply. Something else was missing, though.
"And your wife! Where is she? You two are always together!" By that point I am certain the librarian was sincerely doubting it was the same fellow at all. The pattern had been mysteriously fractured.
I emerged just then, rather breathless from running down three flights of stairs, and she smiled.
"There she is!" she enthused. "I was wondering."
We thanked her for considering us, and went on our way into the night. It was a most surprising pleasure to be missed, and to think that perhaps, after all, somebody had almost been expecting the pair of us. For the first time in quite a long while we thought that our presence had not gone unheeded.
Of course it works both ways; it means that we all ought to be thoughtful and observant, for we simply never know when a simple, single word to a stranger might be the flower or the thorn that changes their day.