The Librarianist

Maria gives Bob a tour of the facility, explaining that most of the seniors are not residents but spend the day hours there only. Bob tries to engage with a few of the seniors. As Maria explains that Chip constantly escapes, Bob studies a bulletin board, then removes a notice about volunteer opportunities at the center. Maria initially discourages him, explaining that not only have past volunteers been underappreciated but also resented by the residents. She laments that they tend to make extra work for the staff, rather than alleviating it. Bob persists, proposing that he read aloud to the seniors, and finally Maria agrees.

Bob arrives for his first reading. Maria points him to a podium and chairs that have been set up in the Great Room. Bob reads a story by Edgar Allan Poe, but one by one, audience members leave as the story proves gruesome.

At home, Bob prepares for his next visit, chiding himself for not previewing the selection before presenting it. He recalls his former wife’s bafflement at his obsession with reading. He decides to write an introduction for his next presentation that explains the value of reading. Then Bob carefully curates a series of short stories by Russian authors. On his next visit, however, the audience again quickly grows disinterested and leaves.

At home that evening, Bob stews in his anger. Maria calls and asks him to keep coming back but not with books. She feels Bob is a stable person from whom many of the dementia patients could benefit from simply being around.

When he returns, Bob attempts to engage the residents in conversation. One man, who is wheelchair bound, introduces himself as Linus Webster once he has finished a snack. Bob then tries to talk with a woman named Jill, who, on a previous visit, told Bob her fingers were going numb.

Noticing some art supplies on a table, Bob begins cutting paper dolls. This captures the attention of some of the residents, and Bob teaches them how to make their own dolls. Their interest eventually wanes, but Bob feels he has made an inroads in connecting with some of the residents.

Bob establishes a rapport with Jill—a nonresident who has many problems of which she is eager to complain. Bob works on a 1,000-piece puzzle with Jill, then sits with her in front of a television program that neither really watches. Jill tells Bob that her space heater is not working properly, and she has come to believe that this is a kind of oracle, warning her of something foreboding.

Linus shows Bob a photograph of himself when he was younger. Bob stares in disbelief at the buff and handsome man. Linus goes on to brag about a life of sexual escapades, then engages Bob in conversation about Schadenfreude—the German concept of taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

On Sunday, Bob decides to clean his attic. He has kept decades of receipts and other records and looks through them. He searches for something dated the day of his wedding in 1959 and finds such a receipt—it is for three drinks at a soda fountain and Bob recalls the event, which took place after he and Connie were married at a courthouse with his friend Ethan as a witness. Connie later left Bob for Ethan.

Bob also finds several items of clothing in boxes marked for the Salvation Army, containing items that belong to both he and Connie.

Bob recalls that after Connie left, he sank into a depression. Both she and Ethan sent him a letter, but Bob read neither of them. Eleven months later, he read the newspaper over breakfast in a café. Ethan had been killed after being struck by a car as a pedestrian.

Bob then returned home to find a police officer in his driveway. He later realized the officer was checking his car for damage. Bob expected Connie to contact him and renew their relationship, but she never did.

In the present, on an icy and snowy morning in February, Bob arrives to discover Chip has escaped once again. Because of the ice storm, day guests are not coming into the center and the full-time residents are all in their rooms while the staff searches for Chip. Maria asks Bob to stay with the residents so that she too can join the search.

Maria leaves and Linus soon appears, urging Bob that they too should search. Bob gives in and as they leave, Jill appears, wanting to join them.

The three talk as they walk through the streets. Jill is exuberant and says it feels as though they are skipping school. She smokes a cigarette and Linus and Bob join in. He suggests they duck into a café for coffee to warm up. Once inside, they decide instead to have a full breakfast. When they finally return to the center, Maria is being questioned by police, and Chip’s son is on the way. Bob stays at the center late into the night, playing cards with Linus. Jill watches, making jokes about gambling, which prompts Linus to ask Bob to run out to buy them some scratch-off lottery tickets.

Bob walks to a 7-Eleven, realizing it is the same one at which he first encountered Chip. He enters the store, and there she is—clinging to the handle of the drink refrigerator. When she refuses to let go, an ambulance is called.

That night, Bob cannot sleep. His thoughts wander to Chip’s son, whom he was surprised to learn existed and even more surprised by his handsomeness. Bob feels as though he knows the son from somewhere and it dawns on him that the reason for this is because the son looks like Ethan. Bob phones Maria, even though it is two o’clock in the morning, and learns that Chip’s real name is Connie Augustine—she is Bob’s former wife.