The Personary

Flash-fiction - by Larry Hodges

"I'm going to the personary!" sang the young science fiction novel, Journey to Betelgeuse, as she skipped along the sidewalk on her black, stick-like legs. She proudly thrust out her glossy cover, with its big spaceship blazing through the Orion Nebula and her name in bright red at the top. Someday she would visit the stars – Antares, Sirius, and Betelgeuse itself! Either for real or in her mind. Same thing. 

As visions of Betelgeuse danced in her head, she almost ran into Motorcycles for Macho Men, a hardcover who came the other way with two of his friends. She barely ducked out of his way. 

"Nerd!" he cried, his sticklike arms on his hips as she stepped back onto the sidewalk.

"You're a pointless waste of paper," added The French Microwave Cookbook, a trade paperback. 

"You live in a world of silly make-believe," said The Moon Landing and Other Myths, a large coffee table book. 

The three stood side by side, blocking her way.

"Let me through!" she cried. But they stayed in front of her, cover edge to cover edge.

"This is what we do to useless novels," said Motorcycles for Macho Men. He shoved Journey to Betelgeuse into the muddy gutter, her pages flapping open. 

"Hah!" the book bullies cried. The three high-fived each other as they gleefully ran away. As usual, they'd be waiting for her when she walked home. 

"I'll show them," Journey to Betelgeuse muttered as she slowly stood up, her pages fluttering in the breeze until she shut herself. She wiped the grimy mud off her binding and covers. Maybe she should make friends with Self-Defense for Complete Klutzes, or maybe How to Make Friends and Influence Idiots? But they'd mock her as well – she was a nerd. Her cover drooped as she slowly trudged along the sidewalk, stick hands in her pages. 

She brightened when she reached the personary. She skipped through the door and proudly showed the smiling personarian her personary card.

"No running!" the personarian hissed as Journey to Betelgeuse sped away. 

Soon she was browsing among the people on the personary shelves. There was such a selection! They were all ages, colors, and sizes, men, women, children, even babies who weren't quite ready. There was even a karate instructor – she stared at that one for a moment. But no, that wasn't the answer, not for her. She browsed a bit more before choosing a boy of perhaps twelve with happy eyes and a Star Wars t-shirt. Most of them looked alike to her – but she'd learned not to judge a person by its outsides. 

Soon she lay on a table in front of him in mutual wonder and adventure as he stared wide-eyed at her pages. At other tables, other books and persons were in similar trances. Then she thought about the book bullies. 

"They can keep their rotten reality," she said. Her person turned a page and they launched into another adventure. "But they can never take this away."