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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Forbidden Library the Down in the Dirt Jan.-April 2023 issues collection book		get the 420 page Jan.-April 2023 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

The Library

Bill Tope

Ms. Denten, the school librarian, stood
before the assembly, addressing the
parents and teachers present. “I have
taken into consideration the concerns of
those who signed this petition but I must
reiterate that, while most of these books
are inappropriate to the elementary
grades I find them in no way objectionable
to middle and high school students. An
angry hush settled over the room.

Mr. Bevins, a stocky man in a brown suit,
rose from his chair and asked, “Have you
actually read these books, Miss Denten?”
“Yes sir, I have,” she replied. “I made it a
point to read all six of the volumes listed
in the petition.” This quieted everyone
for a moment, as no one else present had
actually read the books.

A fleshy blond woman, clad in a dirt brown
pants suit, with a ruby Q brooch attached to
her collar, said, “My Ronnie brought home this
comic book called “Maus.” Ms. Denten said,
“Maus is a graphic novel, Ms. Greene, and has
been awarded many times. What is your
objection, that it is too graphic in its depiction
of the Holocaust?”

Ms. Greene lifted her bovine face defiantly and
said, “No. It’s not that. It’s that everyone knows
that the Holocaust is a Jewish myth they’re using
as a bone in the throat of Christians to turn us
against the Bible! Oh, there are good Jews, don’t
get me wrong, and then there’s all the rest...” A
man sitting next to her placed his hand on her arm.
“C’mon, sit down, Marjorie.” She continued,
“....it’s just that when they start shooting lasers
from space and take my guns away...” She
subsided as her companion succeeded to
placing her in her seat.

Another man stood up, also in a brown suit.
“My daughter brought home this book,” he
spat, holding in the air a library book. “This
book,” he said, “is called Rubyfruit Jungle, and
it’s by a freakin’ lesbo, a goddamned dyke!”
“What sort of books does your family usually
read? Mr. Flynt?” asked the librarian.
“Hey, this ain’t about me,” he said huffily.
“Do you read at all, Larry?” she asked wearily.
“Well,” he said, “I like genre fiction, you know,
thrillers and mysteries.”

“Rita Mae Brown has written more than fifty
of precisely that sort of novel,” said Denten.
“Really?” he asked. “I’ll have to try her out.”
He smiled affably. “We have her right here in
our library,” she said. “She wrote Rubyfruit
Jungle,” she revealed. The room exploded in
gales of laughter. One man, sitting behind Flynt,
grinned and said “I think maybe you’re queer,
Larry.” To which Flynt whipped out a huge, ugly
black revolver and pointed it at his tormentor.

Ms. Denten called the meeting back to order
and Flynt, having displayed his manhood,
settled down. “It appears that the furor is being
caused by confusion in sexual roles and orientation
and disparity,” said Ms. Denten.”Two score
heads bobbed up and down in agreement.

“It may interest you to know that there are
LGBTQ people right here in this school—both
teachers and students—and in fact in this very
room, here, right now!” Everyone seemed to shrink
back into their seats, cowed lest they be pointed
out, rightly or not. “And,” she said loudly, “I know
who they are!” “How do you know?” bawled Blevins
anxiously. “Because,” said the librarian, “we all go
to the same gay bars.” And with that she descended
the dais and flounced out of the room.

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