“It was the best food I ever had. Not just the best curry, but the best thing ever.” Kate was swinging around her fork for emphasis.
“Knowing you, you would have just eaten ice cream straight from the freezer if the librarian didn’t feed you. Why don’t you have like a watch with you if you refuse to even look at your phone for the time?” Oliver wasn’t wrong. He knew Kate since fourth grade and had always been good at predicting her failures at just being human. Her other two friends at the table, Dorian and Arthur, stifled chuckles. They both know as well as Kate did that Oliver was right. She needed a way to track time, especially now that she couldn’t rely on a school bell to interrupt her obsessive reading sessions.
Kate shook her head. “I don’t even have ice cream at home right now.”
“Let me guess, besides curry leftovers you have no food at all?” Technically Oliver was right again, but Kate couldn’t let that stand. Living on her own felt like she had to prove that she was able to survive without help.
“I have stuff. And I am going to get some groceries on the way home too.” Kate sighed.
“If you say so. Anyway, you’re going to head back up to the library later I suppose?”
“Absolutely. You guys have fun drinking with the other new students. I got my own party planned… after shopping, making sure everything is in order for the lectures and dinner.”
Arthur put down his now empty glass. “You sure you don’t want to join us? Might meet new people for once.”
Kate shook her head again. “You know I don’t do alcohol, and even if I meet someone interesting, they are just as likely to be as annoying as you three are when drunk.”
Arthur protested. “Hey! We get fun, not annoying!”
“Speak for yourself, I get annoying and that is the fun.” Everyone agreed with Dorian on that one, before going back to finishing their lunch and having only minor small talk until both Arthur and Dorian had to leave for their next lectures.
While the four had been friends for years now, their interests diverged quite a bit. While Kate had been swallowed by books ever since she learned to read at age 5, and thusly opted to pursue a degree in literature, Arthur and Oliver were never big readers. Arthur had always been the groups dedicated computer nerd and selected his higher education accordingly. Oliver on the other hand preferred something more practical, preferably with animals. He didn’t like veterinarian work though. He instead decided to pursue zoology and try his best to get into field studies. Dorian had always been the quieter type compared to the outgoing jokesters Oliver and Arthur but learned to drop the occasional joke from them. He shared Kate’s love for books, but not her desire to absorb any and all knowledge possible, instead he dug more into the philosophical. It came to no surprise to anyone that he wanted to study theology, after struggling to find meaning in his life with two staunchly atheist parents and the contradictory messages send by the various churches he tried to join over the last few years.
No one really remembers how this quirky group of friends even found each other, but they formed an effective team to get their A-levels together and decided to try the same for university. It took a while for them to settle where to apply, but Kate’s choice won out in the end. While small this university offered all the degrees the four wanted and had pretty low tuition fees, it was pretty unknown to the rest of the world. Kate had originally wondered why that was, given the strange but highly useful library nearby, but with her experience yesterday, she now suspected it was the library and its strange librarians who made sure that this place remained somewhat of an open secret.
Oliver stretched. “You know, I might check out this library of yours too. How about we go there together tomorrow?”
“Sure! I am certain you’ll like, or at least find it useful, you know.”
“It’s a big library, supposedly with the best selection in the world, how could it not be useful?” Oliver was partially joking, but Kate caught a small expectation of disappointment in his eyes. He was right to not expect something ground-breaking. The world had changed over the last decades, physical libraries fell out of favour for search engines, online encyclopaedias and eBooks. Even the other big university libraries had adapted to offer more and more of their selection in a digital format. Kate scoffed internally; she could never image this group of strange librarians to ever embrace technology that way. Her curry had come in masonry jars and a wooden crate instead of Styrofoam and tinfoil. These people seemed to practically reject technology.
“You’ll see. I should get going now though, want to get everything done and be at the library before the party people decide it's time to hog all the busses.”
Oliver nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then, enjoy your reading time.”
“And you have fun with your first ever student party. And tell the others not to get too drunk.
“Yea, yea, I totally will.” Oliver chuckled as Kate got up, grabbed her bag and wandered out of the university cafeteria.
Kate had been bad at planning ahead as usual. For some unknowable reason, bags did not materialize out of thin air in her handbag and so she not only had to buy more, but also failed to estimate the actual volume of her spoils and bought too few. So here she was, once again overburdened and fumbling with her keys for the apartment building. It only took an embarrassing number of attempts and strange poses to not drop anything and unlock the door, but after a second round of Kate versus lock and an eventual third at her apartment door, she finally managed to drop everything onto her very own kitchen counter.
A few minutes of squirreling everything away and a solid hour of fighting with the university’s feisty online tools, Kate finally had some time for herself. Normally she would take a nap before heading out for the evening, but last night was remarkably invigorating despite being quite short. There was no reason for it, but Kate wanted to blame her first proper night of sleep in weeks on the great curry. Instead of closing her eyes for a few hours, Kate decided to have her dinner now and head to the library a few hours earlier than planned.
She got up and headed over to the fridge. Unlike other student homes, Kate’s parents made sure she’d have a comfortable place to live. Material support was one of the few ways they knew how to show care and love. Even as a child, Kate was often at home with only her nanny and her books while her parents travelled for work. This apartment was not her parents’ mansion, but it was large enough to draw the envy of many students. It was also large enough for Kate to consider getting a second fridge, since walking the five meters out of her bedroom and across her small hallway into the actual, real kitchen was apparently too much.
Kate got the masonry jars out of the fridge and the left-over naan from the wooden box. She immediately put both down on the counter. Something wasn’t right. She picked up the naan again. It’s still warm and fresh as it was last night. Puzzled, Kate opened the jar only to be greeted by a cloud of steam. Steam. From the jar that had been sitting in the fridge for a day.
“What...?”
Kate took a moment before getting a plate and dumping the remaining curry onto it. After trying a small spoon full, she confirmed that yes, it was still hot and still fresh. She quickly did the same with the jar of rice and grabbed both her plate and the naan and sat down to eat.
The strange discrepancies in the books she had picked up last night were explainable. Someone either made stuff up or the dates were wrong, either in the books or in Kate’s memory. She could also justify the eerily silent car and the strange librarian and her unusual name. Everything could be explained, maybe this was just some really advanced insulating material. The only two things Kate was sure of, were that fact that this curry is the most delicious thing she had ever eaten and that she would ask her entire list of questions next time.
