The Librarian By Michael Vishnevetsky
A screenplay of a short film
Copyright: Michael Vishnevetsky
vishmish1@gmail.com
INT. A SMALL DARK LIBRARY ROOM - NIGHT
It is an evening in a dark room of a small library. Only green table lamps provide some light in the space. It is winter and it is a snowstorm outside. Through the room window it is possible to see snow piled outside the building. The library is on the 4th floor.
Two young men and one young woman in their 20s sit behind empty desks in the library. They are dressed casually, but
at the same time fashionably. They hold smartphones in their hands and each one of them is focused on their phone, typing text, checking messages, scrolling the social media pages, and typing again. Another YOUNG LADY sits and reads a big paper book. She is 28 years old, dark hair, tied dress, glasses, her long hair fastened by a rubber hair tie.
By the window stands the LIBRARIAN. He is 35, average height, average build, dressed in simple trousers and
light-colored shirt. He wears glasses. The Librarian looks through the window at the street outside. Outside he sees post lamps and window piling the snow.
He looks at a big round clock on the wall of the library. The clock shows 7:59 pm.
LIBRARIAN
Dear visitors, the library is closing. It is enough for today.
The two young men and a woman with smartphones get up and proceed to the exit, at the same time they keep concentrating on their phones and keep scrolling and typing. They smash one into another on their way out once or twice, then they open the door and leave the library room.
The Librarian comes to the door and shuts it by switching the key which is inside the door. Then he turns back to the room, and as he walks to his desk he sees that he is not alone in the library and that the Young Lady still sits and reads the big paper book.
Only the Librarian and the Young Lady remain in the library. The Young Lady sits and keeps reading and the Librarian stands and looks at her.
LIBRARIAN
The time is over for today. You can now leave the library. Come back tomorrow.
YOUNG LADY
I stay. I love reading.
LIBRARIAN
I beg your pardon.
YOUNG LADY
Reading - I love it.
The Librarian looks around him as if to check whether anybody is watching him. He then looks at the girl with astonishment.
LIBRARIAN
What kind of nonsense is this. Please, stop immediately and leave the premises. If you carry on with this type of talk I will have to report it to the authorities. Where is your smartphone?
YOUNG LADY
I’ve got an old phone with buttons.
LIBRARIAN
But it has no chip built in!
YOUNG LADY
This is correct, it’s got no chip.
LIBRARIAN
I don’t believe you. Show me your phone immediately.
YOUNG LADY
Listen, it’s some kind of nonsense. It’s just our first meeting ever. I am not used to show my phone like this.
LIBRARIAN
What do you imagine I’ve offered you? What are you talking about? Who are you?
YOUNG LADY
Is your phone disconnected?
LIBRARIAN
It’s... broken. It is in repair. I’ve got an old model also with buttons for the time being. But it’s just temporary, I will get my smartphone fixed in no time.
The Young Lady nodes agreeably.
YOUNG LADY
I would be able serve my punishment not here, If I desired so. It is not registered without the phone chip anyway.
LIBRARIAN
Why are you here then? Right, you love reading... Listen, I understand everything, but I have to go, I have to do some more social networking for today. Still have to reach the daily output of social network activity and commenting. If I keep this way, I will forever remain just a simple librarian.
YOUNG LADY
You don’t do social networks at home. When you are home, you switch on the light of your table lamp - just like this one here, and read big philosophers of the past, and then write your book.
LIBRARIAN
Please, stop speaking nonsense. What kind of dangerous talk is this? Don’t make me take extreme measures.
YOUNG LADY
You will not do it.
LIBRARIAN
Alright, you are the only one who has actually read here today. What the heck, you are the only one whom I’ve seen reading in years, and not just here, in the library. But you surely know that reading books, here, in the library, is a
punishment, and the library itself is a place where punishment is served. Do you understand this? Punishment! You serve a punishment here.
Your punishment for today is over, and you can now go back to social networks, virtual reality, and simply to games with robots. Have you got a robot at home? I’ve got one! Like all good citizens, we all have got robots at home.
The Young Lady removes her hair tie. Her hair is long and beautiful. She removes her glasses, puts the book on the desk, puts the glasses inside the open book, stands up, and approaches the Librarian.
YOUNG LADY (whispers)
I know everything about you.
LIBRARIAN
How is this?
In the course of the next part of the conversation the Young Lady is very close to the Librarian. She touches his face and strokes his hair.
YOUNG LADY
In your world, the entire perception of reality is shaped by basic needs, small desires, and technical capabilities. Capabilities and desires go in front, and behind them stumble the forms of conduct, which you call culture. This culture, is in fact, nothing else, but a manipulation of your consciousness...
LIBRARIAN
... over your own consciousness!
YOUNG LADY
... over your own consciousness!
LIBRARIAN
How do you know this? It is a quotation from my book!
The Young Lady touches the Librarian with all her body. She is very close to him and whispers into his year.
The Librarian is seemingly embarrassed by this closeness, and weakly, but unsuccessfully, tries to escape the embrace. After two failed attempts to get free, he stops trying. The Young Lady holds him tied.
YOUNG LADY
In your world more probable situations take place quite often, and those which are less probable almost don’t happen. In our world, contrary to yours, frequently happen things which you wouldn’t consider as probable. For example,
all the oxygen in this room can concentrate at one corner of the room. Then the rest of the room will contain no oxygen at all. According to the perception of your world, the probability of this situation is very low, but it does exist.
You can run and go through a wall. Both you and the wall are composed of particles and of a lot of emptiness between the particles.
You go through the wall simply when all your particles go between the particles of the wall. The chance for you to go through a wall is very low. In our world, people go through walls all the time. Sometimes they have some hard time breathing, but bullets do not kill them, and everybody finds his own true love, one for the entire lifetime. Our worlds are a quantum reflection of one another. They make each other complete.
The Librarian and the Young Lady look at each other.
LIBRARIAN
Yin and Yang.
YOUNG LADY
Yes. Yin and Yang. Isn’t it the title of your book? I know everything about you.
LIBRARIAN
How did you come here?
YOUNG LADY
There is an infinite number of worlds, but they also search for their complementary worlds. When two worlds find each other, a connection between them is formed. All the parts of those worlds come into a special harmony, into a resonance, like strings of a contrabass.
When one calls out, the other hears him, and comes. The entire world cannot come, so only the part of the world comes, the one part which is needed the most, the one which is called for the most. I sat on the bench in a park. I looked at the blue skies, at the trees, at the birds, and I was thinking about my last exam. And suddenly I felt that something extraordinary, something very remote and previously unknown to me calls for me, attracts me. And I knew right away that this something was not able to live on without me. I wanted to leave everything and go after this calling. I knew that I wouldn’t be able carry on living the carefree life I lived before. Then I imagined ’what if I was there’... in that other life, a life entirely new to me. The very next moment I found myself in your world, at the detention center. There were some others too. We were told that...
The Young Lady now speaks in a different voice, as if she mocks the detention center servants.
YOUNG LADY
... dangerous to society, and that we should become good citizens,
become useful, like all the rest. The Young Lady stops mocking and now speaks in her ordinary voice again.
YOUNG LADY
Many others detained with me had their smartphones with them. The detention center commanders didn’t mind that. They even encouraged having smartphones with us. What kind of a good citizen won’t have his smartphone with him?! But they
did mind the old-model phones, those having no chip, like your phone.
A resolute knock on the door is heard. A PATROL LEADER’S voice - a man’s voice behind the door is heard.
PATROL LEADER
Open the door! Social Security Department.
LIBRARIAN
It seems that they are here to pick you up.
The Young Lady makes a few steps and approaches the window. The Librarian approaches the door and opens it. Three men enter the room. One of the men is their leader - the Patrol Leader, he is in the middle and leading the other two. All three hold their smartphones in their hands. The men are at their early 30s, they all have the same fashionable beards, haircuts, and outfits, according to the fashion of 2017. Some abstract tattoos and tattoos of scorpions are seen on their necks. The Patrol Leader notices the Young Lady and speaks to her.
PATROL LEADER
You are under arrest. Follow us.
The Young Lady opens the window. A blast of cold wind and some snow come into the room through the open window.
YOUNG LADY
Don’t come close to me. I will jump out.
PATROL LEADER
Let’s see how brave you are. It is our world. It belongs to us. We are on the fourth floor. There is a pavement below, underneath some snow. Let’s see what comes out of it. We will assist you, just to make sure.
The Patrol Leader reaches underneath his jacket towards the underarm gun holster, and takes out a huge silver Magnum 500 revolver. The revolver shines at the dim light of the library. The Patrol Leader holds the revolver and looks at
it for several seconds. His two followers look at the revolver with a clear awe. The Patrol Leader points the revolver at the Young Lady.
PATROL LEADER
Jump. But don’t forget that in our world jumping out of the fourth floor results in death. And once you jump don’t build on flying upwards.
The two followers laugh at this joke of the Patrol Leader. The Librarian comes and stands between the Young Lady and the three men.
LIBRARIAN
I will not let you use firearms in the library. I am in charge here. I demand to bring a lawyer for this young lady.
PATROL LEADER
A lawyer? Did I allow you to talk?
The Patrol Leader and his two followers laugh. Suddenly the Patrol Leader pulls the trigger and a gunshot is heard.
A huge blood stain appears on the shirt of the Librarian. The Librarian falls down on the floor, and lies there dead.
The Young Lady swiftly climes the windowsill and jumps out. The Patrol Leader approaches the window and looks downstairs outside the window. He sees the Young Lady lying on the pavement without moving. Her arms are above and behind her head, her legs are crossed. Her eyes are open and she is clearly dead.
EXT. STREET, TRAM - DAY
It’s an empty street. Great weather, blue skies. The Librarian and the Young Lady sit together in a moving tram. The tram is almost empty with only two-three other passengers. The Librarian and the Young Lady talk to each other and laugh. Their conversation is not heard.
The tram stops. The Patrol Leader and his two followers enter the tram. They are dressed in train ticket inspectors’ uniform. The Patrol Leader has a Magnum 500 revolver inside a hip gun holster. The Patrol Leader and his two followers approach the Librarian and the Young Lady.
PATROL LEADER
Show your tickets for inspection.
LIBRARIAN
We’ve got no tickets. We are from a different world. We’ve just arrived and appeared here, in the tram. We’ll pay at the next stop.
PATROL LEADER
It is forbidden. No ticket - it is bad.
The Patrol Leader takes out his revolver from the hip holster. The Librarian and the Young Lady run towards the rear door of the tram. The tram stops. The rear door opens. The Librarian and the Young Lady jump out of the rear door and run against the direction of the tram motion. The Patrol Leader approaches the rear door of the tram and aims his revolver at the backs of the running Librarian and the Young Lady. His hand holding a revolver is seen aiming at the Librarian and the Young Lady. The tram starts moving again. The Patrol Leader pulls the trigger three times and tree gunshots are heard. Stains of blood appear at the backs of the running Librarian and the Young Lady. They keep running and reach a street corner. The trajectory of possible shooting changes as the tram moves, and the revolver now aims at a building wall. The Patrol Leader sees that he cannot hit anymore and puts the revolver down. The Librarian and the Young Lady turn left, behind the street corner. They keep running and laugh as they run. The tram also turns right behind a different street corner and disappears from view. An empty street is seen.
INT. A BIG BRIGHT LIBRARY ROOM - DAY
The end.