I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my life—many of them customer-facing—but I gotta say I’ve never had more of a blast interacting with the general public than working at a library. You get all sorts coming through and the exchanges are varied. Some are good, some are bad, but they are almost always memorable.
Here is one of my favourites.
By all accounts, it was a pretty average day. Scanning, shelving, reserving—the usual. Then here comes this brick wall of a man. And when I call him a brick wall I am not exaggerating. The thickness of his arms and the width of his shoulders would make a barricade blush. Fella straight up looked like this:
Anyway, he comes up to the desk, puts both hands on it, and leans forward. His face is now inches from mine. He’s breathing exclusively out of his nostrils, the heat of each breath cooking the air. Paired with the vacant look in his eye, he’s like a bull ready to charge. Then he lifts a meaty finger, unfurls his lips, and in a thick Eastern European accent asks:
“Do you have any One Piece?”
It takes a second or two for me to register what he said and a few seconds more to believe I heard it. Then, I try my best to do my job. I’m not 100% sure so I type it into the database. Until the search has loaded, I don’t break eye contact, and when I do, a lump climbs into my throat.
“No. I’m afraid the few copies we have are already borrowed. Do you want me to make a reservation?”
He shakes his head, then says. “What about Na-Ru-To.” He sounds it out just like that. Na Ru To.
I check the database. There are three copies available. “We have volumes 50, 51, and 61 accessible at this library.”
He doesn’t reply. He’s too busy aiming his burly body in the direction of the graphic novels section.
Less than five minutes pass before he comes back, and with him, he brings a veritable bounty of manga. His palms, wider than the shelves themselves, are stacked high with not just Naruto but everything from My Hero Academia to D.Gray Man.
He notices me eyeing his haul and clears his throat. “I like One Piece and Na Ru To,” he says. “They are my favourites. But, I have been told to read more If I am able.”
I ask the man for his library card. He shakes his head and says he will be paying with cash. This is not the first time I’ve served someone who’s assumed the need for money in a public library so I explain to him that he can get a library card and take books out for free. What happens next is one of the reasons I love being a librarian.
His eyes widen and a smile cracks across his face. “This is very good.”
I smile back and tell him that if he likes I can reserve some volumes of One Piece to be transferred to this library for him. A light dances across his gaze and his crack of a smile splits into a chasmic grin.
“You are a very good man!” he declares. “I give you big thank you!”
It takes no time at all to find the volumes he wants and even less to scan his pile. Soon enough, the man has his books, has his reservations, and to my joy, still has his smile.
“I come back for One Piece!” he says gleefully. “I see you soon, yes?”
Then he struts away swinging a canvas bag stuffed with manga like it weighs as much as it did empty.
It didn’t matter what happened during the rest of that day, or even the rest of that week. The genuine smile of that giant manga-loving man carried me through it all.
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