Page 205 - The Midnight Library

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Lost in the Library

‘Mrs Elm?’

‘Yes, Nora, what’s the matter?’
‘It’s dark.’
‘I had noticed.’
‘ at’s not a good sign, is it?’
‘No,’ said Mrs Elm, sounding flustered. ‘You know perfectly well it’s not a

good sign.’
‘I can’t go on.’
‘You always say that.’

‘I have run out of lives. I have been ever ything. And yet I always end up
back here. ere is always something that stops my enjoyment. Always. I feel
ungrateful.’
‘Well, you shouldn’t. And you haven’t run out of anything.’ Mrs Elm
paused to sigh. ‘Did you know that ever y time you choose a book it never

returns to the shelves?’
‘Yes.’
‘Which is why you can never go back into a life you have tried. ere

always needs to be some . . . variation on a theme. In the Midnight Librar y,
you can’t take the same book out twice.’
‘I don’t follow.’
‘Well, even in the dark you know these shelves are as full as the last time
you looked. Feel them, if you like.’

Nora didn’t feel them. ‘Yeah. I know they are.’
‘ ey’re exactly as full as they were when you first arrived here, aren’t
they?’