Page 206 - The Midnight Library

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‘I don’t—’

‘ at means there are still as many possible lives out there for you as there
ever were. An infinite number, in fact. You can never run out of possibilities.’
‘But you can run out of wanting them.’
‘Oh Nora.’

‘Oh what?’
ere was a pause, in the darkness. Nora pressed the small light on her
watch, just to check.
00:00:00

‘I think,’ Mrs Elm said eventually, ‘if I may say so without being rude – I
think you might have lost your way a little bit.’
‘Isn’t that why I came to the Midnight Librar y in the first place? Because I
had lost my way?’

‘Well, yes. But now you are lost within your lostness. Which is to say, ver y
lost indeed. You are not going to find the way you want to live like this.’
‘What if there was never a way? What if I am . . . trapped?’
‘So long as there are still books on the shelves, you are never trapped.

Ever y book is a potential escape.’
‘I just don’t understand life,’ sulked Nora.
‘You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.’
Nora shook her head. is was a bit too much for a Philosophy graduate

to take.
‘But I don’t want to be like this,’ Nora told her. ‘I don’t want to be like
Hugo. I don’t want to keep flicking bet ween lives for ever.’
‘All right. en you need to listen carefully to me. Now, do you want my

advice or don’t you?’
‘Well, yeah. Of course. It feels a little late, but yes, Mrs Elm, I would be
ver y grateful for your advice on this.’
‘Right. Well. I think you have reached a point where you can’t see the

wood for the trees.’
‘I’m not quite sure what you mean.’
‘You are right to think of these lives like a piano where you’re playing
tunes that aren’t really you. You are forgetting who you are. In becoming

ever yone, you are becoming no one. You are forgetting your root life. You
are forgetting what worked for you and what didn’t. You are forgetting your
regrets.’