By Erica Leslie Weidner
while she’s having a mental health crisis at the ref desk. someone needs a flashcard for
something and she retrieves a handful from her desk drawer. while the drawer is open she scans
it for sharp objects. something that will sting. she finds nothing worthwhile. back to the ref desk.
someone else asks why the printer isn’t working and she dutifully puts more paper in the tray. her
colleague is about to go on break and she says hey what’d you bring for lunch? and he says
leftover pizza and she says cool and goes back to thinking about pain. while he’s on lunch she
goes through his desk looking for a pencil sharpener. there are pencil sharpeners in the library
but they are all electric and she knows how hard it will be to get the blade out discreetly. she is
looking for the simple mechanical ones that open up to reveal an easy weapon. she finds nothing
worthwhile. back to the ref desk. she opens her phone and scrolls through Twitter and likes a
couple tweets. she examines her reflection in the phone screen and decides it’s satisfactory. this
is what a librarian looks like, she thinks to herself. she will resume the hunt for blades later. right
now someone is walking by and she needs to put on a smile.
Erica Leslie Weidner is based, in New Jersey, and based in New Jersey. Her work has appeared recently in ink & ivy lit, Vocivia Magazine, and Stanchion Zine. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of underscore_magazine. When she’s not writing, she’s at her day job doing badass librarian stuff.
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