Jan 23 2009
Sally to the Rescue!
Note: I talked about a strange patron before in my post entitled Pick Up Lines. If you missed it, make sure to read that before continuing with this post…
So the creepy patron showed up again at the library tonight. After being gone for weeks, bam!, there he was, haunting the upstairs, and the poor pages. I never laid eyes on him, but I sure heard all about it.
Becky, one of our pages, was upstairs putting books away when she was asked by a patron to help find something. She left her cart there, and walked off with the patron. As she came down the stairs, who was coming up, but the creepy dude. Keeping her cool, Becky finished helping the patron, then came over to the front desk immediately. Leaning over the counter, she whispered to me, “The creepy dude is upstairs! He’s back again!”
“You mean the one who stalked me before?” I whispered back.
“Yeah. He’s back.”
Oh crap. I wasn’t feeling well tonight (still not, actually) and I really didn’t want to mess that guy again. He had caused enough trouble the last time he showed up. Doesn’t he know to only be a pain in the rear when I’m feeling mentally up for it? Can’t people start scheduling stuff around me? Heck, doesn’t the whole universe revolve around me?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Anyway, I wasn’t going to take any chances this time - I had been chewed out enough last time he came into the library, thankyouverymuch. I picked up the phone and quickly called Sally, the director of the library, and told her what was happening.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she said, “I’ll go upstairs with Becky right now. Tell her I’m coming,” and hung up the phone.
Becky filled me in afterwards on what happened. Apparently, as soon as she went back upstairs, she saw the creepy patron standing next to her cart, waiting for her to come back so he could talk to her. Well, that’s what we’re guessing anyway - she wasn’t stupid enough to actually do that. (Yay for smart pages!) As soon as she saw where he was, she pivoted on her heel, headed back down the stairs, got another cart of stuff to put away, and went back up with that. She left her old cart alone, and figured he could guard it all he wanted - she wasn’t going to touch it with a ten-foot pole when he was in the vicinity.
In the meanwhile, there goes Sally, charging up the stairs. You have to imagine Sally in order to realize how almost funny this whole situation is. Sally is a tiny woman - both in height and size. Diminutive is about the best word I can come up for her. But even though she’s in a small body, there’s no lack of courage in her, and she was bound and determined to make sure us staff were okay. So off she went to guard us. Before going up the stairs she held up her emergency pager and said to me, “I have this on me.”
That was her way of reminding me that if she held two buttons down on that pager for just a few seconds, an alarm would sound at the front desk, and that’s the signal for us front desk people to charge to the rescue (or at least call 911. C’mon, how much courage do you think I have?)
Sally sat down at a table next to the elevator, and proceeded to watch the guy’s every move. If he made even so much as a twitch in the wrong direction, she was going to intercept him. To do what, I don’t know - I can’t exactly imagine Sally tackling him. She’s old, and she’s tiny, and she’s…Well, I just can’t see her tackling people. Maybe I have a lack of imagination, who knows. That would be a first for me…
But luckily for all of us, he eventually left without doing anything. I don’t know if he realized that we were watching him, and that took all the fun out of it, or if he just decided to head out for the night. But I can say that I was pretty proud of Sally tonight. She was willing to protect us from this guy, and for a gal who barely comes to my shoulder, that was a pretty big task to take on.
I still haven’t told you guys about the crazy Russian dude who wanted me to have an affair with him, nor the patron who comes in regularly, causes all sorts of problems, and (it turns out) is on the sex offenders list in our state. Apparently, there is no end to the strange patron stories I have to tell. Isn’t that just so exciting?
That’s what I thought. ‘Til tomorrow,
Havs
Excellent story. I really have to admire your director; I’m not sure I could ever do that.
I love how you call Sally old. I think she’s in her fifties. Lol.
But yay for us that he’s back. And yay that the sex offender likes to hang around too. I just love being harassed at the place I work.
Ravyn >> Thanks for the compliment. And yes, I admire her courage too.
Ann >> Is she really that young? I’ve always thought of her in her 60’s. Whoops! It’s just that she’s so little, and her shoulders are hunched, and she’s got gray hairs, and…and…I guess I’m just not good at guessing ages, eh?
Yes, being harassed at work just gives everything an extra wonderful feeling.
You start to REALLY look forward to work when you know you’re going to have a pervert hanging out with you while you work. 
Don’t want to be lonely and bored, right?
Havs
Havs,
I dunno. Maybe she IS in her 60’s. But my mom is 60, so to me that’s not too old. She has arthritis (Sally, not my mom), so that might be a reason for the hunchback look.
And, no, I definitely don’t want to be lonely and bored. I just wish there could be another way that didn’t make me feel so… icky.
Ann >> I was studying her the other day, trying to figure out why I thought she looked so old, and I think it’s because she is so tiny and a little hunched over. She wouldn’t appreciate this comparison, but that’s how my great-grandmother looked - very thin, hunched shoulders, etc. So to me, that’s how 80+ year old’s look, even though when you look at Sally’s face and gestures, she doesn’t look 80+. It’s just in her posture.
Anyway, just had to tell you that I figured that out.
And you enjoy the crazy whackos - just admit it! LOL!
Hava
I made it into the blog! I was just reminded today that you post these and figured I’d check it out again. You two have no idea what it is to be truly harassed by a patron. When we’re alone sometime remind me to tell you about my oh so much fun stalker patron.