Not everyone has children, and not everyone is blessed to have Mom with them, but everybody was either nurtured by someone or can choose to be a nurturer. So Happy Nurture Day to everybody!

Nurture Day for Holly

by Marian Allen

It was Head Librarian Holly Jahangiri’s first Nurture Day as director and house mother of the Council City Living Library. Her predecessor had retired a scant two daybatches ago, taking with her all the “#1 Librarian” mugs the books had given her over the years.

So now, Holly stood gazing with some surprise at her desk which was festooned with bright paper streamers and inflated pratty bladders painted with “Happy Nurture Day!”; a package on the desk looked much too tall and lumpy to be a mug.

“SURPRISE!” Voices bombarded her from every side, as the living books jumped or sprang or, in a couple of cases, fell from their hiding places.

“Open it open it open it!” This was said, Holly wasn’t surprised to note, the abridged War And Peace; he was always in a hurry to get through things.

She undid the wrapping and still didn’t know what it was: Two spotty animals, with disproportionately long legs and necks stood side by side, their necks gracefully curved around to look over one another’s shoulders. One of them had a pink and white ribbon tied around its neck.

“It was African Adventure‘s idea,” said War and Peace. “And A Clockwork Orange carved it.”

“Yes,” said Holly. “I recognize his work.”

African Adventure said, proudly, “They’re lions. That’s a kind of African animal.”

“I added the ribbon, myself,” said Mrs. Dalloway. “That’s how you can tell them apart.”

“It’s lovely,” said Holly, touched, not for the first time, by the affection that grew between living books and their caretaker. “I’ll never forget this day. And, no matter how many books from how many planets I may read in my life, you lot will always have a special drawer in the file cabinet of my heart.”

Then they all had cake.

~ * ~

The real reason there’s a ribbon around the neck of one is that my #3 stepdaughter accidentally knocked the statue off its table and the neck broke off. Then she glued it back rather crookedly before I got home and, when I noticed the break, blamed it on her #2 son. Naturally, I discovered what had really happened, because I always do, whether I want to or not. I tied the ribbon on because I love her anyway. 🙂

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write about someone who helped you to grow.

MA