{"id":662,"date":"2019-01-07T13:27:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T13:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=662"},"modified":"2019-01-05T22:25:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T22:25:29","slug":"daily-tally-by-j-motoki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2019\/01\/07\/daily-tally-by-j-motoki\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Tally by J. Motoki"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

J. Motoki is a nomadic librarian who writes in the stacks, snubs patrons, and whispers uncomfortable things from the shadows. Her work have been published in <\/em>Nowhere.Ink<\/em><\/a>, Rune Bear, and Coffin Bell. You can read more of her work at <\/em>www.jumotki.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Daily Tally<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing shift. I\u2019m not feeling myself tonight. My sweaty hand\nclutches a brass tally counter, a relic from the card catalogue days, and the\nclick, click, clicking sets my teeth on edge. (Internet Search: What is fever\nof the hands?) Thirty minutes until closing and patrons still swarm through the\ndoors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these people returning books at night, tossing them down the\nbook drop, one by one. Flutter of page wings. All these people stamping up the\nstairs to gawk at the domed glass ceiling, stars trapped in foggy reflection.\nLook at their necks, slender tendons on sticks, look how vulnerable. Remember\nwhen we thought turkeys stare skyward and drown in rain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You ask: will these glass walls last the end times? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking the real questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My desk in the corner reads REFERENCE. An invitation to stupid\ninquiry.  If you ask for restroom directions, I\u2019ll point you down the only\nhall and watch you come back, confused. Internet trouble? Clicking the red X\nwill NOT expand new tabs. ILLs take a minimum of five to ten business days, I\u2019m\nsorry you need this specific book for your research paper that\u2019s due tomorrow. No,\nI don\u2019t know why you forgot to breathe the other day, ask your general practitioner.\nBetter yet, say nothing until the time comes when you forget again, until you\nstart to inhale again. Trigger lung collapse, your face bruised and crumpling\nlike old fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After break, an elderly lady smiles knowingly as I rub my bloated\nstomach. Boy or girl?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, in fact, pies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little boy: Coffin bells, how do they ring if there\u2019s no one\naround to ring them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Victorian paradox; that pall riddle. I search the question,\nour interests piqued. See, the string is tied to the deceased\u2019s finger\u2015if they wake, they ring the\nbells. Little boy, hands over his mouth, the world\u2019s biggest secret revealed\nonly to him, he is going to laugh or scream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attention guests: the library\nwill be closing in\u2014<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down the hall these turkeys go, and I hear a woman cluck to her friend:\nit was so strange, like I forgot to know how to breathe.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J. Motoki is a nomadic librarian who writes in the stacks, snubs patrons, and whispers uncomfortable things from the shadows. Her work have been published in Nowhere.Ink, Rune Bear, and Coffin Bell. You can read more of her work at www.jumotki.com. Daily Tally Closing shift. I\u2019m not feeling myself tonight. My sweaty hand clutches a … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-aG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}