Page 148 - The Midnight Library
P. 148
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God and Other Librarians
‘Who are you?’
‘You know my name. I am Mrs Elm. Louise Isabel Elm.’
‘Are you God?’
She smiled. ‘I am who I am.’
‘And who is that?’
‘ e librarian.’
‘But you aren’t a real person. You’re just a . . . mechanism.’
‘Aren’t we all?’
‘Not like that. You are the product of some strange interaction bet ween
my mind and the multiverse, some simplification of the quantum wave
function or whatever it is.’
Mrs Elm looked perturbed by the suggestion. ‘What is the matter?’
Nora thought of the polar bear as she stared down at the yellow-brown
stone floor. ‘I nearly died.’
‘And remember, if you die in a life, there is no way back here.’
‘ at’s not fair.’
‘ e librar y has strict rules. Books are precious. You have to treat them
carefully.’
‘But these are other lives. Other variants of me. Not me me.’
‘Yes, but while you are experiencing them, it is you who has to pay the
consequences.’
‘Well, I think that stinks, to be perfectly honest.’
e librarian’s smile curled at its edges, like a fallen leaf. ‘Well, this is
interesting.’
‘What is interesting?’
