Grrrrr...there was no way in hell I could concentrate under these conditions, so I slammed the books shut and slouched off to make myself a coffee. Maybe they'll ease up a bit shortly? I gave it half an hour, but, no, the hammering and drilling emanating from the house next door only increased, the walls trembled and the surface of the coffee in my cup seemed to be taking on a decidedly whirlpool effect.
The Whittakers, lovely neighbours as they were but who saw themselves socially as upwardly mobile, had decided to do a loft conversion and turn their attic into a fully outfitted extra room, including a dormer window jutting out from the slanted roof - it was no little undertaking ...and I was suffering the consequences. They'd made their profuse apologies of course, and promised to restrict any large amount of noise to within normal work hours, but none of that helped me preparing for my finals in a couple of weeks.
So then I'd suddenly had enough. With a broad sweep of my arm I scooped my books, notes and assorted paraphernalia into my briefcase and slammed the front door behind me as I strode out to the car. I hoped my slamming it would alert them to my annoyance, but it only coincided with one of the hammer blows, so went sublimely unnoticed.
I pointed the car towards the public library where Mum was now working. It wasn't our local neighborhood library, the one she'd worked at previously. That one, she'd said, had had no choice but to downsize as a reflection of our increasingly electronic age and so she'd transferred to a much larger one closer to the centre of town which had far more facilities. I'd never been to it, but Mum had told me she enjoyed the atmosphere there and so I thought, if there was anywhere in town conducive to getting some work done, it was going to be there.
I sauntered in and was about to present myself as Natalie's son to a lovely older, but very sexily dressed lady librarian sitting behind the counter, and ask where there was an available study corner, when an old chap, leaning heavily on his cane, rushed up, insofar as he was able to rush up, and in a wheezy voice asked,
"Is Natalie in today? Is she here? Am I on time?"
The librarian looked up at him sweetly, and with a friendly smile said,
"Yes, Mister Nicholson, you're okay, you've still got time, she's just down in the basement at the moment, getting ready..."
"Oh good, thank you very much." and with that he hobbled away behind some sets of shelves.
I was about to open my mouth again when yet another fellow, smartly dressed, but again of more than pensionable age, walked by and said, "Yes...?"
"Yes, Freddy, go right on through, she'll be there in a few moments."
Two more men of similar age shuffled by, and to these she simply smiled, nodded and, with her pencil, pointed them in the same direction as the others.
In the momentary lull, I took the opportunity to say, "Hello, I'm a student and I was..."
Again she smiled sweetly. She was very attractive and my eyes worked overtime trying to keep a direct line between her eyes and mine and not let them drop down into the crevice that was her bosom, very evident from the three buttons of her blouse which she'd left open at the top. Where was I? Oh yes...
"...umm a student, and..."
"You need a corner to study?"
"Yes, yes, that's it, I..."
She laughed and stood up, leaned towards me across the counter...ohgodohgodohgod...and pointed with her pencil in the same vague direction she'd sent the others.
"Follow them, but just before the room they're going into...you should catch them up, they're not very quick haha... there's a green door which leads into several study alcoves where you have computers and wi-fi for laptops and it'll be nice and quiet, will that be okay?" She smiled at me, the eraser-end of her pencil tapping on her snow-white teeth inside the oval frame of her crimson lips.
"Y...Y...Yes, indeed, thank you..."
She continued to lean across the counter and I sensed how her eyes were following me or, more exactly, following my ass as I walked away.
"If you need any help, I'll be here..."
I looked back at her over my shoulder. She was eating me with her eyes. The pencil had been lowered and was now gliding up and down between her breasts. I gave her a friendly wave of acknowledgement. "Thank you..."
I followed the last old geezer round a bank of shelves, and entered the study alcoves just as he sped, actually sped, into the next room where he seemed to be greeted by an already substantial crowd and a shuffling of feet and chairs.
I guessed my mum, Natalie, would come by at some point and I'd be able to greet her, so in the meantime I spread my revision stuff out at one of the tables and settled in to work. The door to the adjoining room was half-open and I was thinking of closing it, but the low murmuring of the, what was it? a pensioners' forum? didn't bother me after the cacophony of noise back home. They seemed to be in lively spirits, chatting animatedly and with an air of anticipation among themselves, but suddenly fell quiet and turned their attention in one direction when the door to their room squeaked open and a sexy voice which I think I last heard used onstage by Jessica Rabbit, intoned,