Shh!

I'm sitting here in the library, trying to get some work done, and there's a man beside me talking on his cell phone.

In the library.

Now, it's not like he's bothering me. He is talking rather softly. But this flagrant flouting of the rules has me up in arms.

I glance around, looking for a sign that says NO CELL PHONES. Okay, I don't actually see one. But isn't it common sense? This is a library, not a cafe. Even little kids know to be quiet in a library. Oh look, here's a little sign that says READING IN PROGRESS, PLEASE BE QUIET. For heaven's sake, the sign is right in front of him and he continues to talk!

And nobody is asking him to stop! None of us here at this workstation are even affecting annoyance. But inside, we are all desperately annoyed. I can tell. The couple with the stack of magazines, the man with his headphones and I, we are all desperately annoyed.

Again, it's not the talking itself that's bugging me. In fact, if he were to stop talking it might get a little too quiet, and then I would hear the whispered conversation of the couple with the magazines. And everyone knows that whispers are far more carrying than low voices. And far more distracting. That would probably drive me nuts, as a matter of fact, hearing their hushed chatter, the turning of their magazine pages. I'd probably just sit here, chewing my fingernails for another twenty minutes, trying desperately not to listen to them, then give it up as a bad job and go home. But the sheer fact that they're trying to keep quiet, that they're abiding by the rules, makes this young couple okay in my book. They have every right to bother me accidentally while trying not to disturb me.

But this guy on his cell phone, well, he's got some nerve, not actually disturbing me with his bothersome behavior.

Hey, here comes a librarian. Surely she will set this man straight. Will she just tell him to be quiet or will she ask him to leave? Let's find out!

I don't realize that I am holding my breath until the librarian walks past us without a word. Because the man is still, listening intently to the person on the other end of the line.

No! Librarian! This man is talking on the phone! Didn't you read it in his posture? Couldn't you tell what he was doing? He is upsetting us all with his brazen violation of library policy! He is distilling the dreary atmosphere into something pleasant, like that of a buzzing little coffee shop! He is --

Oh wait, he's leaving.

And now the couple with the magazines is leaving too. It's just me and the guy with the headphones.

God, it's quiet in here.

I can't work like this. I think maybe I'll go home.