A lot of nutters come to the library. They often don't like to make use of the material at the library, they just like to chat with whoever will listen. As people stuck behind the reference desk with no means of escape, they normally talk with the reference librarian, and will not stop unless forced to. When I'm there, it's almost always with someone else, and as I am not big on small talk in general but especially not with randoms in the library, they usually lose interest in me after a bit and move on to someone else. Until last night.
Picture it. I'm alone at the reference desk as my fellow librarian has gone to eat dinner. Solo nutter comes up to the desk to ask me about the nearby grandfather clock and when it will ring. He commences speaking about how it sounds like an organ and that organs are used to make music on carousels. He then asks me if I like the park. What park, I ask. Disney World, he replies.
How did random nutter know?
I've never been, I say as I will myself to stay silent on the subject and that he will move on. This is a tough one for me. I can be a bit fanatical about Disney, and having just returned from a trip, I am anxious to share my stories. But he does not stop there. He begins regaling me with the history of Disney World, getting fact after fact wrong. I am not responding at all, so if I had shown the slightest bit of interest he would never have left. The strength it took to not correct him or go into a detailed conversation with him about the merits of the Carousel of Progress was something I did not know I had in me. If I had joined in, a passerby would not have known who the nutter was. After 10 minutes, he grew bored with my lack of knowledge about Disney World and moved on, allowing me to finally talk to all the library patrons who had been waiting for him to finish. I will now cross my fingers that the next time I'm working at the library, a loon will not start spouting incorrect facts about Harry Potter. I don't know how I can resist a second time.
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