Books Make It .better., totally open

[Christian Collins]

What did one do when (surprisingly) he had free time on his hands? If that one was Christian, he hung out in a library. And why was Christian hanging out in a library? That was simple. They had books. Libraries had books on everything. If you wanted to find out how to do something totally obscure, like say...raise a chicken, just check out a library! They were bound to have a book there. Also, they were comfy. It was a universal truth that libraries made people feel better. If they just had chocolate, it would be perfect. But the comfiness was still great, don't get him wrong. Libraries were places where people could curl up and escape the daily grind. And, quite frankly, Christian was getting tired of the daily grind. He could tolerate things being monotonous for a while, then variety had to be added in.

So that was why Christian was squatting down, looking through a shelf of biographies. It was pretty good, especially when compared to most other school libraries. It had a ton of books-which almost automatically made it good. Still, it wasn't like it was the Library of Congress or something. Come to think of it, could you even check out books from the Library of Congress? He mentally added that to the list of things he would eventually get around to. Right now, he just wanted a book, specifically a book on Plank. Science was weird at times. You spent all of your life learning about this guy's formulas, and using said formula (or in Plank's case, constant) most of the time and what do you know about his personal life? Squat. It seemed as if scientists didn't have a personal life-which Christian thought kind of bizarre. Technically, he was a scientist. All though, the real lab work he had done was all a few years ago. Quickly shelving that memory, he returned to searching.

-"There we go," Christian muttered, smile on his face as he pulled out a book. Well, what did you know. They did have a biography on Plank. That was slightly bizarre. Out of all the books in this library, they had a biography on Plank? Insane. Maybe some unfortunate student had to do a project on him. He knew that it wasn't him who assigned a project-Christian was more hands on than book-learning. Well, what about the previous teacher? Or was there one? The school was fairly new; he wasn't even sure if a previous teacher existed. Well, maybe it wasn't for a project. Maybe the library had weird taste. Christian frowned slightly, looking at the book. Yeah, this classified as weird taste.

He idly flipped through the book, stopping to read the occasional sentence. After flipping to the back of the book, Christian idly closed it. This looked good. The prose wasn't too wordy and he could understand all of the words-or at least, all of the words that he read in his skim-through. He quickly stood up, keeping a hold on the book. However, his arm decided to be rather stupid and forcibly connected with the book shelf behind him. Resisting the urge to curse, Christian instead bit his lip hardly as he drummed his foot up and down. Okay, that hurt like a mother. Not cool bookshelf.

[Evelyn Erwan]

Evelyn had never been one of those teachers who would sit in a circle with her fellow colleagues and discuss how deceiving their young students could be and how such decadence was horrifying, and blah de blah... It seemed that, for some, once you had reached a certain age, you became completely irreproachable and therefore you were allowed to sit on the throne of purity and to glare down at the following generation, your nose wrinkled with disgust. She wasn't big on judgement, and she was delusive enough to enjoy teaching her students, and she even pushed the limits of common sense to stop by and chat with some of them in the hallways ! However, she was growing quite concerned about the lack of imagination she had witnessed during her latest class.

You asked them to draw something, they asked for a suggestion. You gave them suggestions, and then they asked for a decision. Then you decided for them, and they asked for a model ! She even came to wonder if they would request a picture of their own feet in order to be able to draw it. Why yes, staring down at your feet to draw them was so overrated. Luckily, this wasn't the case for each of her students, but it was still somehow peculiar, and Evelyn didn't have a picture of every single drawable thing on earth in her portfolio. The problem has actually been torturing the Art teacher so much that she came to turn to one of her last resorts - the Library.

She was hundred percent sure to find a book or two with interesting landscapes or photography that would inspire her students to draw something, or some Smurfs comics that she could shove on their desks, to the least ! Her mind was centered on her mighty quest when she entered the Library confidently, proud to be entering it for possibly the first concrete time with such a valiant mission. It was quiet - what a surprise - and she couldn't spot anyone sitting at the tables, near the entrance. Too bad, no one was available to suffer her salutation smile !

The young woman made her way to the Encyclopaedia area where she started her searching, and after nothing but two short minutes, she was holding a large book in her hands and she flipped trough its pages with triumph. This was a win. Now, on to the next section she had previously spotted - Biographies. If this Library didn't have at least one book dealing with Monet, Van Gogh or even Disney, she was out of here with a theatrical gasp. Her eyes were still absorbed by the pictures held within the book as she rounded the corner of a bookshelf, and a childish ' awh ' even escaped her peach lips at the sight of a lion cub shoot, before she even started to notice the shadow that was starting to cover her sight. She stopped dead in her tracks and her head popped up in a flash to get a glance of the gigantic dancing figure with whom she had just barely avoided a collision.

Why, Lucky day... Of course, what were the chances that she could be alone in a high school library ? And considering her luck, why couldn't that person be her ex-husband ? Oh yes, wait - they actually were working at the same school. Now, what was possibly going to follow made her bite her lower lip. She closed her book unconsciously and she stared, blankly and silently... Oh come on, she wasn't going to glare silently, again, was she ? She had to say something.

'' Sorry... ? '' She said, somehow hesitantly, as her eyes flashed down to glance at his dancing feet. She hadn't step on it, had she ? Or had she become so senile that she performed act of violence against Christian without keeping any memories of it...

[Christian Collins]

'' Sorry... ? ''

Oh. There was someone there, standing next to him.Hearing the voice, Christian stopped his 'okay, I'm in pain' dance and shot his head up, looking at the speaker. It wasn't like he needed to look. He knew who it was. He heard that voice almost every day for two-ish years. Wait...was it two? It had to be more than two. Anyway, it didn't matter. All that mattered was his ex-wife standing there in the library. Well. That was a shock. Christian's eyes widened slightly, then they relaxed. Wow. Tis was weird already. He frowned slightly at her choice of words. That was weird. Why was she apologizing? She hadn't done anything. He was the one who hit his arm. Still lost for words, Christian responded with the only thing he could come up with.

"Huh?" Instantly he regretted it. Out of all the words in the English language, out of all the things he could have said to her, out of all the things that could give off a sort of nonchalant vibe, he came up with 'Huh'. Wow, that was so intelligent. 'Huh'. You see your ex-wife, she apologizes for something and the first word out of your mouth is 'Huh'. Bravo Christian. You're being so fluent today. His mind quickly worked up to make up for that moment of idiocy. What was he doing-biting his lip, sort of dancing. Wait a moment...instantly the light bulb flashed on. "Oh, the dancing thing? Well, I banged my arm against a bookshelf," he jerked his head towards the accused object, "and...well, you can't really curse in a library. And besides, if I hit the bookshelf back then my hand would hurt." He let out a small laugh, idly scratching the back of his neck. He was getting nervous. He knew that he was totally giving off the 'Jesus Christ, I'm nervous' vibes.

One thing was certain. Evelyn was here, so he had to do something. He didn't want to just stand here looking stupid. That would be very awkward for both of them. Besides, Christian didn't like looking stupid even if there was no one in the library. So, the other option would be pleasant conversation. That should be easy. However, he didn't really want to talk to Evelyn. Half of the things out of his mouth would probably end back into an argument. He didn't want to start a giant row, especially here in the library. Keeping a firm grip on the book, he moved his other hand from his neck back to his side. Well...she was a teacher also. Maybe if he thought of her as a teacher and not as his ex-wife, it would be easier to talk to her? It seemed like it would be. Okay, she's not Evelyn the ex-wife. She's Evelyn the art teacher, one of the many teachers at the school. Just think about her like that.

"It's been a while." Dammit! There went the plan.

[Evelyn Erwan]

Evelyn's eyes narrowed awkwardly to his response. ' Huh ' … So what, she had apologized for absolutely nothing ? Actually, that made sense, it was her style to feel guilty over nothing. Luckily, Christian ended up formulating much more common words and he was soon explaining clearly and logically the pain dance she had just witnessed. Of course he had a detailed report about it, not that she wasn't expecting it, but he shared it with her in a tone she didn't love to hear - he was nervous. That was never good for her to hear. Since when can you make people awkward ? asked a voice in the back of her head. Obviously, that voice was the one of a drunk idiot who did not registered the fact that the man standing in front of her was the man she had left a little less than a year ago. Maybe she could make him nervous the same way he actually did to her... The corner of her lips rose up lightly, performing a light relieved smile as she eyed the guilty bookshelf, understandingly.

'' Oh, Okay. '' The two simple words escaped her lips along with a lightly nervous laugh. Good, so it was confirmed that she wasn't a senile bully! Her finger started to drum on her encyclopaedia without causing any sound to betray her nervous movement, thanks to her lack of nails. So what now ? Would they just wave themselves goodbye silently ? Possibly, but presently, he was blocking her way into the book alley, and she was blocking his way out, most likely ! She tore her eyes away from Christian's to stare at some of the books surrounding them, in a desperate attempt to find a civilized way to continue, or possibly end, their kind of conversation. Before her searches could come near any kind of fruition, her colleague went ahead and added something.

"It's been a while."

Her eyebrows rose considerably to his words, forming a huge arch of surprise over her green eyes who traveled up to his, trying to read something his words did not precisely said. It had been like that for a while - Evelyn had started to seek an side-meaning to most likely everything Christian said, which had never proved itself to be a good idea, but it seemed that her little habit hadn't slipped away. It had been a while indeed, but since what ? Since she had forced him to watch The Lion King' with her ? Since they had had breakfast together ? Since they had met up in a library ? Okay, actually, they had never met up in a library - or wait, maybe they had, back in college... Her mental machinery was now working at full speed, completely uselessly, and she had remained silent long enough to make it obvious. There was no side meaning to that, and her response to it could only be;


'' Yeah... '' She responded quickly, nodding her head repetitively, and her lips cracked in a casual smile, which actually ended up looking like an awkward grin than anything else. But she could at least offer him that.

He was doing casual conversation efforts, and Evelyn was the last person in this school that was able to ignore that and walk away with a grumpy face... Even if she was standing in front of her ex-husband with whom, as far as she knew, she had established a World War Two feeling, when she left. The woman did not allow her mind to drift further away in that subject and her eyes darted off to the bookshelf, then to Christian and onto the book he was holding well - she traveled her gaze everywhere but on to his face. She had to pursue the conversation in a way. The woman cleared her throat, looked down at the large book her colleague was holding and red the tile quickly.

'' Plank, uh ? '' It came out more like a statement rather than a question and she was even showing civilized interest in his choice of book. Of course, she had absolutely no idea of what Plank was, and therefore she did not went on with her idiotic topic of conversation, or she would be able to claim confidently that she did knew what it was about and how much she had loved that Tv-Show... Obviously, it couldn't be a Tv-Show, and Evelyn was already mentally busy slapping herself for even thinking that it could be.

[Christian Collins]

As soon as the nervous level had dropped down slightly, it shot back up again. She wasn't saying anything. That was never good. Was it his statement? Was it just too generic? He really wasn't thinking of anything specific. Nothing like 'it's been a while since we've last saw a movie' or 'it's been a while since we tried to grow things in the apartment windowsill' or 'it's been a while since we got married'. Just 'it's been a while'. And it has. It had been a while since he had done anything with her, heck it's been a while since they saw each other, since they talked. Maybe that was why she was making him nervous. When Evelyn gave out her answer, Christian replied to it with a small smile, also responding to her awkward grin. He resisted the urge to let loose a small giggle. That grin looked pretty silly from where he was.

'' Plank, uh ? ''

A topic! That was a much needed change from the awkward silence that had developed (again). Christian nodded, holding up the book so that Evelyn could get a better view of it. The cover was rather boring, but it still had all the clarifications that yes, this was a book about a dead scientist. Boring cover, unoriginal name, white background, picture of Planck. All of these were qualifications about biographies about dead white guys. Plank fit that criteria. From the tone of Evelyn's voice, she probably didn't know who he was. Christian was fine with that. After all, he confused all of the artists-not just two or three of them, ALL of them. A Van Gogh was the same as a Monet to him. They were all dead anyway. Since she probably didn't know, he jumped on the topic, ready to talk about something.

"Planck's considered one of the fathers of quantum mechanics. He's the guy who came up with Planck's constant, used to describe sizes of quanta." He smiled slightly. It always was good to know things. Feeling slightly less nervous, Christian crossed his arms over his chest and leaned slightly on the bookshelf. "I'm checking to see if he has a social life." In all honesty, Christian wasn't so sure. A lot of scientists ended up crammed in a small lab in dark lighting, hunched over something, creating Frankenstein's monster all by themselves. Maybe that was why he decided to take up teaching. He couldn't be totally devoid of human contact. That might drive him crazy.

[Evelyn Erwan]

Her smile stood confidently in place when he went on with his explanations about the mysterious Planck. Evelyn wrapped an arm around her slightly heavy North-America encyclopaedia to hold it close to her, while she jammed her other hand in her jeans' pocket. Now that she was all comfortably set, she listened carefully and she was not surprised to find out that Planck was some sort of Scientist.

Also, Christian was certainly aware that she was nodding only for the appearance when he was done with his explanations, because the only words she could understand in his sentences were his verbs and nouns. Maybe 'mechanics' actually rung a bell, but she doubted that this biography had anything to do with fixing cars. She bet it had always pleased him to be the 'smart, one, always treating subject she didn't have the IQ to understand, but he had never been able to beat her at a Disney pop Quiz !... Not that this was a very gratifying example.

She could not understand why she fought an evil grin to his next statement and how she managed to keep on a polite face. So he was seeking to see if his fellow man of science had been trough anything socially important ? Somehow, this sounded funny to her, as if it was an opened door in which she was invited to throw a sadist sarcasm , like 'you want to see if his wife because he preferred staring at dancing microbes trough a microscope?'. Now, she could absolutely not say that, it was purely mean and, believe it or not, Evelyn did not wanted to offend her husband (at least, not anymore). The woman shrugged and cocked her head to the side, innocently.

'' Well, I'm pretty sure there'll be at least one social chapter in the whole thing. '' She stated, nodding her head toward his book as she mentioned the size of it. '' At least, I hope so. '' she added, entirely honest. There was a hope that not all the scientists involved in a couple ended up like them - too awkward to talk about anything else but books.

It would be a shame to go trough all these pages, which she was positive held paragraphs written in horribly small characters, without finding anything about the precise subject he had been seeking. Well, at least he would understand all the subjects treated in the whole book, whether if it was about social life or not, and so he would find some entertainment in at least one of the chapters, if not all - unlike she would. She would just feel more and more stupid after each chapters.

[Christian Collins]

Christian slowly realized, mid-way through his explanation, that Evelyn probably didn't give a flying crap about Planck. He was a scientist, she was an artist. He spent his life in front of a microscope, she spent hers in front of an easel. He was...well, he was dead. That had to be a point against Planck's interestingness. Indeed, as he watched her head during his explanation, he could tell that the nods were forced. He tried not to frown, getting slightly defensive. Was she nodding because of the 'Planck is confusing' thing or was she nodding just to pass time? Was she even listening to him? She could just be waiting for him to stop talking so she could leave.

As she mentioned about the chapter, Christian took a second to look at the book. Indeed, it did look big. That was good, yet bad. There had to be some social information about his social life in there. Even if it was just a pathetic paragraph, there had to be some information. On the downside, it could be that the book was huge because they went in great detail to explain what the constant was and things like that. Normally, that would be good. However, he already knew some about quantum physics...and frankly, it was a bit confusing. Christian naturally wrapped his brain over most sciences but this was a whole new ballgame. He nodded and laughed slightly at Evelyn's response, mainly because he was slightly unsure as of what to say. 'Thanks, I hope it does'. 'I hope you're right'. 'Why do you care?'. All of them sounded like crappy answers. So he did a simple thing, smile and nod.

He looked over Evelyn, eyes staying on the book in her hands. It was huge, slightly bigger than his own Planck biography. After a closer study and a faster scanning, Christian realized that she was holding an encyclopedia. The first thought that came to Christian's mind was another eloquent 'huh?'. Why would Evelyn be holding an encyclopedia? Well, a normal person would hold an encyclopedia because they were going to look up something. However, Christian knew fully that the words 'normal' and 'Evelyn' usually weren't said in the same sentence. Cheerful, optimistic, peppy Disney-addicts weren't the textbook definition of normal.

"You've got an encyclopedia," Christian stated, uncrossing his right hand from his chest to point to the encyclopedia. No duh. She knew herself that she had an encyclopedia. Time for a quick save. "Bedtime reading?" he said, joking slightly. It felt better this way. He liked joking with her and smiling around her. Even through all of the stuff they've been through, Christian still felt more normal smiling and joking around with her. Everything after she left him had just been so bizarre and surreal, it felt nice to get back to what they felt originally-even if it was just a partial feeling and he still was nervous as hell.

[Evelyn Erwan]

Her grin grew more defined and she looked up, making a 'yes I do' face. She even allowed herself to chuckle, yet just once and very lightly. This conversation was so odd, yet somehow casual, and she wasn't feeling all that nervous anymore. This had to be a good thing, somehow, and it was nice to know that she had been wrong to avoid any social moves toward Christian, for a while. Maybe it had been the right thing to do, for a while, but now it couldn't be all that dangerous to, let's say, wave at him in the staff lounge.

She could remember being reluctant to that idea, fearing that they would just end up spitting hot coffee at each other, which would have been more than delusive, considering the fact Evelyn was the only teacher in this world who didn't drink coffee. Alright, so maybe the situation wasn't as miraculous as it seemed, anyway. Anybody could discuss books on a civilized tone, even Mr. and ex-Ms. Collins! With another cock of her head, Evelyn took in his second question about her choice of 'reading', and his relatively clueless expression did not surprise her all that much. Being him, she'd be just as surprised to see her holding a book bigger than his, and looking rather serious, not the less! She might've been looking mightily like a culture woman for once, but sadly she would have to break that down with the truth.

'' Yeah, well no... It's for my next class - those kids always ask for references. '' She answered, snapping her tongue to make a deceived 'tick' sound. '' Don't let that cover fool you, it's eighty percent Images. '' The woman concluded, almost sounding like she was making a reproach to that poor helpless book.

[Christian Collins]

"They're asking for references?" Christian repeated, raising an eyebrow. He bet that didn't sit well with the ball of artsyness herself. He gasped in mock horror. "How dare they!" he responded emphatically with a serious look on his face. The seriousness lasted for about a moment as a wide grin broke out on Christian's face. If there was one thing to annoy Evelyn, as improbable as it sounded for her to get annoyed, lack of imagination was probably it. He slightly sympathized with the poor students. He had no creativity when it came to things like 'draw a pretty picture!'. However, they were in art. Creativity was a requirement, wasn't it? Reason one why he never took an art class. The grin faded, being replaced by a small smile.

As Evelyn made the revelation about the mystery encyclopedia under her arms, Christian nodded. That made sense. First, he couldn't picture Evelyn carrying a real, large encyclopedia-the one with a billion rows of small, miniscule text. That was a very bizarre image in his mind. However, he could easily picture her with a picture encyclopedia. An art class, picture encyclopedia, the two fit in together. Granted, when one thought 'art class', 'picture encyclopedia' wasn't the first though they had. It was a slightly obscure fit, but a fit nonetheless. Well, that would have their references in it. Although, Christian had to wonder what they were drawing, if it was anything specific, that the students wanted references. He could understand if they were drawing lions or something like that. He imagined that lions would be complicated to draw.

"You said that like the images were a bad thing," Christian said, looking from the encyclopedia to Evelyn. "It can't help being the way it is," he replied, shrugging slightly. The slight smile remained on his face. Well, this was going better now that he had gotten over the initial awkwardness and giant pits of nervousness. Now they were making small talk. Nice, peaceful, calm small talk. With no yelling. Oh yes, that was important. No yelling. Those few times after she left him that they talked on the phone always ended up with lots of yelling and a depressed Christian. The yelling was awful. And there had been no talk about their marriage. Thank god for that. That was another thing that usually led to yelling. Whenever someone mentioned the divorce papers or lawyers, Christian got slightly more annoyed than usual. All in all, this was turning out fairly well.

[Evelyn Erwan]

It suddenly felt blurry - like some sort of dream. Was he actually grinning ? And was she really smiling back, refreshingly ? This used to be normal, but she suddenly couldn't remember why it wasn't anymore. A part of her did not loved to be around him anymore, because of all the things she blamed him for, but the thing was that she held him responsible for things she couldn't place her finger on. What was he guilty of... ruining their marriage ? Forcing her to leave, for forcing her to give up their child (not that he even knew there had ever been any kid)? If you looked at the situation from another angle, blaming was of no use. No one had forced her to leave, no one had forced her to abort the baby... No one but herself. Whichever regard you could get of the situation, the woman found that blaming him was much more easier.

Only a part of her mind was concentrating on that for now - the dark part. It was where she kept away all the things that bothered her, all the things that didn't fit in her sunny land of happiness, and however dark her thoughts were becoming back there, Evelyn was still smiling at Christian to maintain their civilized conversation.

''How dare they!"

'' I'd love to know! '' The art teacher declared with a shrug, pulling off a sheepish grin. '' You don't teach them how to eradicate their creativity neurones from their system, do you ? '' Now, that was a joke that was bound to be rubbed in her face for how ridiculous it was. She did tried to make a scientific joke, tough, and that was worth one hell of an award, or at least a cookie. And boy would she be having a serious headache in a minute, after using more than two scientific terms in one sentence - and yet, she wasn't even sure that they made sense.

"You said that like the images were a bad thing. It can't help being the way it is,"

'' I know, '' She told him with a childish roll of her eyes. '' But if you could just keep that a secret, I'm going to pretend it's completely filled with text, and then, maybe I will actually get respectable looks from the bright ones of this school. '' She spoke seriously, almost darkly, as if she had just made the most important decision of her day, grinning deviously.

Yes, they almost seemed like two acquainted human being now - great! And it could actually stay this way, as long as they were both careful enough as to not let the words 'couple' or even 'wedding' slip out of their lips.

[Christian Collins]

'' You don't teach them how to eradicate their creativity neurones from their system, do you ? ''

The big grin plastered itself back on Christian's face. "Now why would I do that? Just because I have no 'creative neurons' doesn't mean that I'd kill the other children's." Creative neurons. That was one to remember. The air quotes practically dropped themselves. He had to smile at that. That was as scientific as Evelyn would get during the conversation, he knew that much right there. And yet, he didn't care very much. He didn't care at the moment that this was the most scientific he'd get. He didn't care at all that they were acting completely silly. He was having fun-which wasn't as bizarre as he had thought it would be.

There was hope for the 'Evelyn and him actually getting on somewhat good terms' again campaign. Considering that this conversation was giving him full-on nostalgia, there was definite hope. Which, was always good. He wanted things to go back to the way they were. They'd work in the morning, then he'd come back home to Evelyn and they'd do...something. Whether it was force him to watch a Disney movie or just sit and play cards, they'd do something. The loneliness of his apartment was starting to get to him. Granted, the other staff were fun (at least most of them-that Donovan tended to get on his nerves some times), but it wasn't like before. Now, there was at least a little bit of their marriage seeping through.

'' But if you could just keep that a secret, I'm going to pretend it's completely filled with text, and then, maybe I will actually get respectable looks from the bright ones of this school. ''

"They'll have to kill me before I tell," he said nodding sagely. Of course, he wasn't sure who they was. Wait a moment...they were or they was? They were sounded better. Yeah, he wasn't sure who they were. The other teachers? That would be a good they. Okay, that was his they then. Christian lifted up his free hand and traced the letter 'x' on the area of his chest where his heart was. Of course he would keep it a secret. Anything to make Evelyn feel good. Moving the hand from his heart, he made a motion of zipping his lips. The motion's effectiveness was slightly lessened because of the grin.

[Evelyn Erwan]

'' Well, how am I supposed to know... You are the devious scientist, you know why you do what you do. '' She swore to herself that it would be the last scientific joke of the day, and the woman grinned right back at her colleague.

Another big honest smile - there was hope for him, just yet! And that wasn't so good, because hope wasn't something Evelyn could turn her back on. Then again, where's the bad in that, you would ask ? This was Christian. He was her ex-husband, the one she had left, the one who was a workaholic, the one she cried for a lot. Maybe it was different now, they were standing there, smiling at each other, after all. But there was a another side to every coin. Nothing told her that this was certain to last, nothing told her that if they were back together, tomorrow morning, that he wouldn't be off dissecting rats for the rest of the day. And if that happened and that she would try to talk to him, it was bound to be the same episode over and over again. Suitcases packed and fiery screaming phone calls.

Now, why the hell was this encounter so mentally demanding, to her ? She could not remember asking herself that many questions in a row. There was no point in thinking about all those things between every sentence they exchanged. It wasn't like she had ever been planing on giving their 'us' another chance... was it ? She made sure not to betray herself and smiled again joyfully.

"They'll have to kill me before I tell,"

'' I'm counting on that. '' She claimed, pointing a theatrical finger at him for a few seconds, as if to say that he'd better not let her down. She didn't spend hours on the act before looking past him to stare at the bookshelf. That had to be her next stop. It did made sense, after all, Christian was standing in that alley and he was holding a Biography. Most certainly, she would find the one she was looking for, around here, if she could proceed further into the alley, that was!

'' Sorry me, '' She said, slithering her way trough between his imposing stature and the bookshelf on her right so that she could now have a look at the Biographies. Of course, her words had been purely intentional misuse of the English language, but he was used to that coming from her french-weirdo self. Oh god, and there she was, on with the nostalgia once more...

[Christian Collins]

As Evelyn pointed her finger at him, the smile remained intact while his eyes traveled towards the finger, leaving him momentarily cross-eyed. "Of course you can count on that. I'm dependable," he idly said, smirking slightly. "The crazy scientist has to be good for something." He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right and blinked quickly a few times to stop the awkward feeling associated with being cross-eyed.

The feeling that he was walking on broken glass was slowly going away-but still there, he noticed. God, this was weird. They spent the last few time talking to each other practically yelling their heads off and here they were-talking in the library, acting as if everything was just fine. Christian knew far from the truth that everything probably wasn't. He knew that he had moved on...sort of...kind of...not really. Okay, so he hadn't moved on that well. Granted, he had a job now and was actually starting to act more and more like his old self, but the word 'marriage' still made him want to vomit. He wasn't calling her anymore. That had to be a plus. Although, a little nagging voice reminded him, that might be because he didn't have her phone number.

As Evelyn pushed passed him to get the the biographies, Christian quickly took a step back, trying to get out of the way. He was in her way? Oops. He was totally oblivious to the fact that Evelyn might be here for a biography. The mental game of 'what to say, how to say it' was occupying most of his mind. As she spoke, he smiled slightly. He was used to her random mangled English expressions. After all, when you lived with a person for that long a time you would have to be blind not to pick up on some of their quirks. One of Evelyn's cutest was the botched English. On anyone else, it might be annoying but she made it work. He didn't know how, but she made it so that she didn't sound like a complete foreigner or idiot-just someone who's forte wasn't the English language.

"What are you looking for?" Christian peeked over Evelyn's shoulder as she looked at the biographies. He wasn't trying to be nosy. Really, he wasn't. It's just that he was slightly curious. She already had the giant encyclopedia, what more did she need? Were her kids that desperate for references?

[Evelyn Erwan]

The limits of reality were pushed even further when Evelyn kneeled down in front of the bookshelf to gaze down at the biographic novels that were resting on the very first shelf. It had been surprising enough to witness that she was entering a library with full consciousness, but who would have thought that she would be storming trough serious books, like she presently did, better than to actually go for some illustrated children books. That wouldn't have surprised anyone, including herself, but there she was, holding one seriously heavy book and intending to find a second one. However as she

He was still there... And helping her, as well ! It wasn't like she had been hoping for him to leave, as odd as this presently sounded, but she couldn't help but to be surprised. It still presently felt odd to see them, what... 'helping each other' in a Library? Alright, the fact that she was in a library was becoming was too recurrent, maybe it was about time she'd get over it! The woman glanced over her shoulder at Christian, shortly, and made an indecisive face.

'' I'm not sure, '' She stated, turning her attention back on the book. '' There has to be some helpful Artist Biographies, in there...''

The latter sentence had been more or less muttered to herself, and Evelyn traveled her finger from titles to titles as she spoke, but so far, her search wasn’t coming close to any fruition. Those were probably all about dead singers or actors, since nobody actually cared about someone who only drew a mouse or painted psychedelic flowers his whole life! But then again, if Christian could find a book about some unknown scientist, there was no way in hell that she couldn't find at least one magazine about Walt Disney, or even Picasso, not that the latter would be very helpful to her students. They would just probably end up tugging at their hair because of his complexity. To be honest, even Evelyn had never been very absorbed by his work, either!

The woman sighed and stared at the books thoughtfully. They were placed in alphabetical order, which had allowed her to check quickly if any of her first choices were there, and as a matter of fact, there weren’t! There was a possibility that she had been too lunatic somehow, during the process, and that she had failed to notice a name that rang any bells to her. That wouldn’t be surprising at all, but Evelyn was already thinking that she would have more success in finding childish books with pictures better than real artistic information. Where was the Art, in schools, these days ?

While the idea had been nothing but a mental joke, a few minutes ago, it suddenly hit her as potentially useful. To have random thoughts confusing her logical train of thoughts was something way too usual, and never would she push those holy ideas flash away, no matter how confusing it could get. And so, without any sort of explanations, Evelyn was back up on her feet and looked up at the only person who could listen to her important questions. Her tone of voice almost sounded important and her eyes thoughtful when she spoke.

'' Do they have Smurfs Comics ? ''

[Christian Collins]

Christian nodded, as Evelyn commented about the book she was searching for. An artist biography? They should have something here. If they had a book about Planck, then there had to be something here about an artist. Bending down at the knees, Christian began to look at the shelves and started to look also. It didn't help that he couldn't think of a famous artist right now to save his life. Christian's culture was limited to the front page of a newspaper. Beethoven was a composer-person...who was an artist? Van Gogh? Yeah, that sounded familiar. That had to be an artist. He started to search the shelves, trying to find a biography on Van Gogh. His eyes zoomed straight towards the 'V's. Nothing.

Frowning slightly, Christian racked his brain again. His culture couldn't be that limited. He had to be able to come up with another artist. He didn't know if it was the fact that he was actually trying to think of one now or if he actually didn't know any, but he was drawing a blank. Why couldn't he think of any artists right now? God, he was pathetic. A thought then dawned. Maybe this was why Evelyn left him-he just wasn't into her interests. No, that couldn't be it. He didn't like art, but she didn't like science. But, a little nagging voice reminded him, you can't come up with any freaking painters. But it wasn't like she could name any scientists. Christian stood up, scratching the back of his head. He had to know another painter.

Suddenly, Evelyn stood up. Christian's eyes widened as he backed up slightly, his back ramming into the bookshelf. Well he wasn't prepared for that. Oh crap, her face looked serious. Christian mentally prepared himself for some sort of battering, life-threatening, serious question. Something which would make him uncomfortable, and would make them yell and would make any chance of the two tolerating each other go out of the window. He did not expect at all what came out of Evelyn's mouth.

Smurf comics? Christian's face registered blankness for a few seconds. She wanted Smurf comics. The blankness quickly melted as he tried hard not to laugh. Most people didn't get so serious about comic books. He wasn't expecting this at all. He wanted to laugh, but...one look of Evelyn's face told him that it might be a bad idea. "I have no idea," Christian said, shrugging slightly. "Why don't you go ask the librarian?" In all honesty, he didn't know! He couldn't picture himself reading comics-at all. Period.