A Story A Day. Story 230 of 365: Isolation.

Silence was all around, only the occasional flip of a page would break it. And the smell of old books was the best perfume in the world. The library was Ian's sanctuary, it provided him everything he had ever needed: books, calmness, and social isolation. He was in charge of finding the documents people requested at the front desk, as well as of sorting out new acquisitions.

He had never been a people's person, so he was glad he didn't have to interact with people on a daily basis. However, that soon changed. The library where he worked usually had interns during the summer period, they would be placed at the front desk, as it was the busiest part. Unfortunately for Ian, that year there were too many interns, and one of them ended up working with him.

Clarissa, Ian's intern, was a nervous blonde girl with little mousey eyes that were hidden behind thick glasses. Ian took patience with her. In fact, if anyone had seen, no one would have thought that Ian hated working around other people. He showed her around and made her work with him when he was doing the most simple tasks. He told her to interrupt him if she had any doubt, and assumed she didn't. It was an emotionally stressful situation for him, having to worry about his work and Clarissa. He sometimes wondered whether she was learning anything or, at least, enjoying the experience. Yet, she never complained.

During a particularly stressful day, he sent her to pick some of the most requested documents in the library, they had gone there at least twenty times. After an extremely long period of time the girl arrived empty handed. She couldn't find them, she said. Ian sighed and walked to the room, she had taken half of the documents of the chamber out of the shelves and onto the table. Ian felt his blood boiling. Without a word he put everything back in place and took out the right documents. He bit his tongue, knowing he didn't have anything nice to say. He worked silently for the rest of the day, despite Clarissa's efforts to take a word out of him. When she finally left, he crawled under his desk and cried.