I was working at the circulation desk at the library, as usual, this week when a little boy, who was perhaps three years old, came to the desk with his mother. From where he was standing, he could not see me behind the desk because of his small stature. I could just see the top of his brown hair over the counter. One of my coworkers was checking out books to his mother at the computer terminal on the left in the photo below. (The computer terminals are behind those white box-like things on the top of the desk.) I was at the computer terminal on the right. The boy was fascinated by the slot in the desk for the book return, as many children are. (You can see the slot in the desk in the picture above. It is right over Charlie the Chicken's head.) The slot was pretty much at eye level for the toddler. It fascinated him because it seemed like a secret passage of sorts with some sort of mystical quality. Who would put a hole there and what was on the other side? What would yo...
