Members Only
Mohammed Al-Asmari has a posseāor at least thatās how he makes it sound, conferring with Penumbra and Corvina down on the floor of the bookstore, across the bulk of the wide desk.
āThe measure of a bookstore is not its receipts, but its friends,ā he says, āand here, we are rich indeed.ā Penumbra sees Corvina clench his jaw just slightly; he gets the sense that Moās clerk wishes they had some receipts, too.
āThey reside in every part of this city,ā Mo continues. āEvery neighborhood, every social stratum. I assure you, someone will know someone ā¦ who knows someone ā¦ who is connected to this excavation.ā He divvies up the labor: āI will make the calls. Mr. Corvina, you will do the legwork. But while you are occupied ā¦ someone must take your place here.ā He swivels to look at Penumbra.
āMe?ā
āAre we to be collaborators in this quest or not?ā
āWell. I supposeāyes. I can watch the store.ā
Corvina eyes Mo darkly. āAre you going to tell him the rules?ā
āOf course.ā Mo draws himself up straight. āMr. Penumbra: Please make yourself at home here. Do whatever you must to prevent the store from being ransacked, burned down, or raided by the police. Sell a few books if you can. But do not, under any circumstances, browse, read, or otherwise inspect the shelved volumes.ā
Penumbra peers up at the tall shelves. āThey are off-limits entirely?ā
āIf you are called upon by a member to retrieve one, you may do so.ā
āA member. I see. How does one become a member?ā
Mo adjusts his glasses. āThere is a way of progressing through this bookstore. Before one can become a member, one must be a customer. Andāah, wait.ā He plays at recollecting: āHave you by chance ā¦ purchased a book yet, Mr. Penumbra?ā
He smiles, shakes his head. āI have not.ā
Mo smiles, too. āThen spend some time browsing, why donāt you? I recommend the poetry table. Have you read Brautigan? Oh, you must, you must.ā
Later, with the scrum at its swollen peak, a dark-eyed woman glances at Penumbra: once, twice. Then she crosses the store, a plume of smoke tracking her progress, like a little steam engine. When she draws near, Penumbra can see that she is carrying a slender joint. She holds it out toward him.
āWant some, tiger?ā
āAhāno. In fact, I do not think ā¦ you see, there are books here.ā
āOh, Iām no book-burner.ā
āIt would presumably be an accident.ā
āNo such thing as accidents, tiger.ā She takes a drag. āYouāre new here, arenāt you?ā
āNew? Ah, no. In point of fact, I am not truly here.ā He means to say: I do not work here; I am just filling in. But it comes out strangely, andā
āThatās far out,ā she says, nodding. āMaybe Iām not here either. Maybe you and me shouldnāt be hereātogether. Catch my drift?ā
āI believe so, but I do notāā
āMy pals are heading over to the Haight. Why donāt you boogie with us?ā
āI cannot, ah, boogie. That isāI cannot leave my post. Another time, perhaps.ā
She gives him a pitying smile. āKeep on trucking, then.ā She sends another plume curling into the air and rejoins the crowd. Later, heading for the door, she casts one last glance in his direction, but Penumbra looks away.
He is watching the shop again, waiting for Corvinaās return. The clerk has found a member with a brother-in-law who does taxes for a construction company that manages one of the BART worksites. He is schmoozing the accountant over beers at the House of Shields.
Penumbra is halfway through The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; he feels like he understands the overnight crowd better with every page. The Merry Pranksters have just encountered a group of Hells Angels when a throat is cleared, delicately. Penumbra snaps his head up, startled. Before him, several steps back from the desk, stands a young woman in a green corduroys.
āCan Iāah.ā Penumbra sets his book aside. āCan I help you?ā
The woman seems to be evaluating him. Penumbra is not sure how long she has been standing there. She is clutching a huge dark-bound book close to her chest.
āYouāre new,ā she says at last.
āI am not actuallyāah.ā He gives in. āYes. I suppose I am new.ā
āI can come back later.ā
āNo, no. I can help you.ā
She takes two swift steps forward, drops the book onto the desk with a heavy whump, then retreats two steps back. āIām done with that one.ā
Penumbra tips the book up, looks at the spine. It is one of the volumes from the tall shelves.
āOf course,ā he says. āSo. How, erāwas it?ā
She is silent a moment, and he thinks she might be about to flee out the front door, but then her cool countenance cracks a little, as if she canāt quite contain herself, and in a rush, she says: āIt was pretty interesting. Not as hard as I thought it would be, from the way he talked about it. Mo, I mean. It was just a homophonic substitution cipher.ā She pauses. āMaybe I shouldnāt have told you that.ā
Penumbra has no idea what she is talking about. Or what he is supposed to do now. An uncomfortable silence spreads between them.
āAnyway,ā she says at last. āThe next one in the sequence is ā¦ wait.ā She digs in her pocket, pulls out a wrinkled piece of paper. It is covered on both sides with letters scratched out and rewritten, blanks erased and filled in, like a game of Hangman gone wrong. She reads across and down, mouthing the letters. Then she refolds the paper, stuffs it back into her pocket, and announces: āKingslake.ā
āKingslake,ā Penumbra repeats. He finds the oblong ledger that Corvina consulted on his first visitāthe catalog. The entries are handwritten; many are annotated, and some are crossed out. He finds KAEL, KANE (SEE ALSO: CAIN), KEANE, KIM, KING, and then, KINGSLAKE. The catalog specifies coordinates.
āThree ā¦ twenty-three,ā Penumbra reads. āThree twenty-three. Wait here, please.ā
He pads back toward the tall shelves, where he finds numbered brass plaques set low, at approximately Al-Asmari-level. He follows them down to III and rolls the ladder into place, fumbling with the locking brace at the bottom.
Then he climbs. It turns out that shelf XXIII is very far from the ground. The Galvanic library has no ladders; there, they keep the books, sensibly, on many separate floors. Penumbra grips the rungs tightly and takes slow, careful stepsāpast V, past X, past XV and XX.
At this height, he can see the ceilingācan confirm that there is, in fact, a ceiling, not just an infinity of dark shelving. He tips his head back to get a better look. There is an image up there, a mural that covers the whole area, looking a bit like a Renaissance fresco. Piece by piece, he assembles the scene: climbers in cloaks on a steep rocky trail. Dark clouds above them, and lightning that runs like a crack through the paint. Their expressions show wide eyes and gritted teeth, but their arms are outstretched, and they clasp hands. The climbers are pulling each other along.
He lowers his gaze to find shelf XXIII and there he spies his quarry: it is as thick as a dictionary, with KINGSLAKE printed on the spine. He hooks an elbow around the ladder, then unclamps his other hand and sends it searching after the book, his longest finger stretching to reach it, wiggling in air, just catching the spine once, twice, tipping it forward, until it starts to slide under its own weight, and he knows he needs to grab it, except that he is suddenly very aware of its mass, and he is afraid that if he attaches himself to this heavy object, it might overburden him, might pull himā
The book falls.
He has time to register his carelessness, and even consider how else he might have approached this challenge, as he watches it plunge down past twenty-two lower shelves, spinning end over end, fluttering just slightlyāand fall into the outstretched arms of Marcus Corvina.
Penumbra approaches gingerly. āI am sorry, Marcus,ā he ventures. āI should not haveāā
Corvina looks up. He is smilingāonly the second time Penumbra has seen that expression on his face. āIāve dropped three books and never breathed a word to Mo. As far as Iām concerned ā¦ I didnāt see a thing.ā
Penumbra nods. āThank you.ā
Corvina finishes scribbling, closes the leather-bound book, then taps it meaningfully. āItās people like Evelyn Erdos who are the real customers, you know.ā
āThe real customers.ā
āYes. The real readers.ā The smile has faded. āIf I ran this store, Iād make it members only. I certainly wouldnāt waste any more time with the public.ā He almost spits it: public.
Penumbra pauses, considering. Then he says: āMarcus ā¦ if this store were not open to the public, I would not be here now.ā
Corvina furrows his brow and nods once. But he seems unswayed.
Corvina delivers the news glumly.
āBut this is a positive development, isnāt it?ā Penumbra asks.
āHe wants two thousand dollars,ā Corvina explains. āI wish I could tell you otherwise, but we donāt have that kind of money.ā He looks around the store with a sour expression. āAs you might have noticed, we donāt sell many books here. A foundation in New York pays the rent ā¦ but thatās about it.ā
āDo not despair yet, Marcus,ā Penumbra says. āThere is another benefactor we can call upon.ā