A LEMUR IN THE LIBRARY
Part Two
by Lauri Fortino

“This is animal control,” said the voice on the other end of the line.
“We have a lemur in the library!” said the librarian. “It’s disturbing our patrons and destroying property. Can you send someone right away?”
“A lemur? I’m not sure we have the right equipment for that, but we’ll swing by.”
“Thanks, and please hurry!”
Meanwhile, the lemur spied a potted plant. Abandoning the half-eaten paperback, it jumped down from the table and sashayed across the floor on all fours, its tail held high behind it.
It stopped at the Noteworthy Nonfiction display to sniff the cover of Real Food/Fake Food by Larry Olmsted. Then it poked at a copy of Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin before resuming its course.
The librarian returned from the office just in time to see the lemur scurry up the ficus tree.
It managed to free a branch from the trunk and began chewing on a leaf.
“It doesn’t know it’s artificial,” said the page who’d been observing the animal.
“Let’s move the flowers off the reference desk,” said the librarian, “before—”
“It’s too late,” interrupted the page. “It’s looking this way!”
TO BE CONTINUED

*This story originally appeared in the newsletter of the Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville.

Click here for Part One