Hal Nathan
Your heart is pounding as you sip your coffee. Your eyes quickly dart back and forth from line to line as you look through your notes searching for the perfect quote. Found it. You copy it closely, jamming each key into the keyboard as you do it. Whats keeping you so focused? Maybe it’s the clicking of the keys on your computer, mixed with everyone else’s. That, plus the rapid tapping of your foot on the ground that has been non-stop for the past hour and will only continue as you keep fueling it with caffeine. It could also be the glowing white light on your computer attracting your eyes to the screen like a moth to a lamp. Whatever it is, you are locked in, furiously typing away as fast as possible not stopping at a single miss-spelled word no matter how butchered it may be. The word “necessarily” has quite possibly, never been spelled worse. All the sudden a slight buzz interrupts your work. Everything slows down. It’s your phone. It’ll only take a second. After glancing at your phone, you stretch your arms and tilt you head back to crack your neck. Before allowing yourself to mindlessly go back to staring at the text messages that are popping up, you look around. No one else at these desks is distracted. Not even the people sitting on the couches. All that can be heard are plastic keys and the occasional scribble of a pencil on paper. A cold sweat drips down your back. You chug your somewhat warm coffee and snap back into action. Now is not the time for a distraction, and your peers seem to silently agree. With that, you are back to typing and before you know it you are the only one at a desk staring at your computer screen. You can feel your heart beat through your bloodshot eyes. You look up once more, the time is eleven fifty. The lights in the back of the library begin to shut off. “Library closes in ten” someone yells. Some of the soul survivors of the night begin to pack their things. You do as well. Your nightly workload for this evening is over. Time to check those texts.