A Portrait of the Library

There is a lady of around 60 in here with a cough. She has this cough because of a post-nasal drip. She takes something twice a day but it is not working. I know this because she told someone sitting across from her, who asked her some question. The woman who asked her informed her that she and her husband got—*she just coughed—a cough from the air conditioning. There is another woman who is going to use the bathroom, which I know because she announced it. Another couple entered the library to say “look at --*someone else just coughed—“Look at all the books!”

Also, I can hear this verbatim, which is someone on her cellphone:
“Marnie can you hear me? Hi. You’re not going to believe this but we’re coming home on Sunday. We’re Coming Home on Sunday. Yes. We’re coming home on Sunday not Saturday. Can you hear it? SUNDAY. Yeeeeees. Okay. So be there one more day please? Thank you. I’ll tell you all about it when we get home. Bye bye.”

Conversation between the coughing woman and her husband:
“It’s dripping down my throat. I took my medicine.”
“So what do you want to do”
“Do you want to go have lunch?”
“Yeah, but hah I’ll just have a salad because I ate already.”
“There’s the BBQ. Shall we take it to the room”
“Maybe I’ll have pasta salad.”
“They have pistachio ice cream.”
“This is my second lunch.”

She is coughing. She is coughing again.

This is the reading room, which is a great place to make plans as judged by what is happening.

Also, I can overhear a lady presenting other cruises in the galaxy, a good place to make plans. Also a teenager saying “hii-iiiii.”

All of the coughing people left, now it is just me, a teenage boy, and a younger woman with her feet up. We are not making noise. WE WIN! Now it is just the woman and me and she is falling asleep. WE WIN! WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN!

---the people have been fed, so they have returned to the library. The hacking woman is back.