Page 114 - The Midnight Library

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‘Right. Now, settle,’ said Mrs Elm, before releasing a deep and meaningful

exhale. She was clearly talking to herself.
‘My mum died on different dates in different lives. I’d like a life where she
is still here. Does that life exist?’
Mrs Elm’s attention switched to Nora.

‘Maybe it does.’
‘Great.’
‘But you can’t get there.’
‘Why not?’

‘Because this librar y is about your decisions. ere was no choice you
could have made that led to her being alive beyond yesterday. I’m sorr y.’
A light bulb flickered above Nora’s head. But the rest of the librar y stayed
as it was.

‘You need to think about something else, Nora. What was good about the
last life?’
Nora nodded. ‘Swimming. I liked swimming. But I don’t think I was
happy in that life. I don’t know if I am truly happy in any life.’

‘Is happiness the aim?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose I want my life to mean somet hing. I want to do
something good.’
‘You once wanted to be a glaciologist,’ Mrs Elm appeared to remember.

‘Yeah.’
‘You used to talk about it. You said you were interested in the Arctic, so I
suggested you become a glaciologist.’
‘I remember. I liked the sound of it straight away. My mum and dad never

liked the idea, though.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t really know. ey encouraged swimming. Well, Dad did. But
anything that involved academic work, they were funny about.’

Nora felt a deep sadness, down in her stomach. From her arrival into life,
she was considered by her parents in a different way to her brother.
‘Other than swimming, Joe was the one expected to pursue things,’ she
told Mrs Elm. ‘My mum put me off anything that could take me away.

Unlike Dad, she didn’t even push me to swim. But surely there must be a life
where I didn’t listen to my mum and where I am now an Arctic researcher.