I originally thought of this as a story for the Friday Fictioneers prompt last week but I didn’t want to cram it into 100 words. However, I will use the picture again. I thought of this story when I realized just how much information we have access to these days, absolutely free.
copyright Randy Mazie
The Price of Knowledge
The man strode into the library. “Hi, I’d like to read a book. Hayden’s Practical Herpetology.”
The librarian looked up and smiled lazily. “Okay, let’s see . . . The price for that is—”
“$3.55 a minute. I’ve had it before.”
The librarian looked impressed. “Ah, you must be Mr. Appleton. Three times in the 24 hours. It must be a great book.”
“Yeah, yeah. Great book.”
“How many minutes would you like to read today?”
The man pulled out a crumpled $20, borrowed from a neighbor. “Look, I didn’t ask this before, but do you have any sort of discounts for hardship or . . .” He saw immediately that it was hopeless.
“Sorry, sir. We only allow that for fiction, not non-fiction. So, how many minutes?”
The man looked at the bill again, calculating. “Five minutes, I guess.”
“Okay, that’s 18.85, after tax.” She took the money, gave him change. “Follow me.”
She led him to a reading desk and brought the book. He opened the cover and a digital clock above the desk started to count down his precious seconds.
He turned to page 378: Natural Remedies for Snakebites. Writing wasn’t allowed but he tried to memorize all that he could, fear and panic fighting with concentration. He hoped he could find one that worked. He hoped it wouldn’t be too late for Sarah.
The Green-Walled Tower 
December 5th, 2014 at 9:30 am
I love this story, David. Glad you posted it. Glad you didn’t try to stuff it into 100 words or less. Now if only our country would finally shut down all those Commie libraries that still let people checkout books for free . . . 🙂 What will we do if the masses actually start learning a thing or two?
Cheers!
Marie Gail
December 5th, 2014 at 10:00 pm
he should have tried google! 😦
We have so much knowledge for free in our hands these days, the whole credit goes to search engines. All you need is patience.
December 5th, 2014 at 11:32 pm
Exactly. I’m imagining a world without the Internet, where knowledge is at a premium. We are very spoiled with the amount of knowledge at our fingertips.
December 5th, 2014 at 10:50 pm
I love that it takes place at the library, my favorite haunt. You’re a great bedtime story on a late Friday night 🙂
December 5th, 2014 at 11:33 pm
Thanks, my friend. 🙂