Is it Worth it?

Penelope stopped in front of 389.2 closing her eyes. After 496 years on Earth, and 144 spent trying to memorize the Dewey Decimal System, she still had to pause and think when reshelving books. Nope. She was in the wrong place, folktales were in 398.2. She turned around and stuck a book about skinwalkers back where it belonged, before turning back to her heavy cart, pushing it through the aisles.

Passing the community notice board, she saw a flyer for an Irish Step Dance class. She chuckled to herself, thinking about the last time she had tried Irish Step, about 93 years ago. Or was it 94? No matter. She had been absolutely terrible at it, but the monotony of the library days were getting to her so she picked up a flyer. As she folded it into a square, the webbing between her index finger and thumb sliced along the impossibly sharp edge of the paper, blossoming blood almost immiediately.

“Goddammit!” she burst out. The already hushed library became immediately and unnervingly silent as the circulation desk paused its stamping, the computer users ceased typing, and librarian reading aloud for Children’s Story Hour stopped mid-sentence.

“Sorry,” Penelope called out as she sheepishly held up her hand. “Paper cut.”