i can't be trusted with books

when i was eight, i used to go with my mom or dad to the public library. it was an old wooden house, with squeaky wooden floors, with silence so thick you can almost taste. i would spend long time beneath the shelves, going through book covers, reading descriptions on their backs.. then go to the librarian's desk, and borrow as many books as she would let me. kids were normally allowed to take home two or three books at a time, but i usually got away with four, five, six... i would start reading the first book in the car on the way home, and, not being able to let it go, sit in the parked car and keep reading till it was too dark to see the letters. i stayed up reading in bed for hours and hours, ima or aba sticking their heads in the doorway every once in a while to check if i already fell asleep, which i did, eventually, at two in the morning, only when the book came to an end.