The large table was covered in books, as always, somebody must have been working on their metaphysics’ thesis, because that seemed to be the theme of the table this time, with mounds of books spanning from religion to philosophy, and a lot of psychology in between.
She looked around and discovered the cause of this soul searching frenzy. Right in front of her eyes, on one of the large columns which supported the skylight, was a poster announcing a new lecture series: “Between Lives: A History of Metempsychosis”
“Well, then,” she thought, with bitter irony. “That must be where everybody went, it looks like I’m missing out.”
She lifted her eyes as she turned around to exit the reading room and noticed the North Star glowing through the glass of the skylight; she wondered why she never paid attention to the night sky before, wondered why would it be so wrong if she took some time out of her busy schedule to hang out at the campus observatory, and maybe look at some star charts to learn where to find the constellations, and how to follow their travels across the firmament.
She was sure it was the North Star, at least she thought so, maybe it wasn’t, she didn’t know that much about stars. The world seemed much larger, all of a sudden, full of places that were very far away and of things she knew nothing about, and even if she wasn’t yet sure whether her experience had been real, that life was indeed without end, she was happy to believe it, happy to know she’d have enough time to figure out all of those things out there, those beautiful things that daily life passes by, confident in its priority status, and relegates them to the entertainment and leisure section, to be browsed through quickly when one wants to get one’s mind off of things.
Life is different when you have time, and Taylor had time, because at the age of nineteen she had inadvertently walked into eternity. She wrote down the schedule of the lecture series, not sure yet if she wanted to attend, and exited the halls, just as the speaker made the announcement that the library would close in fifteen minutes.
