Blob Thing was having ever such a good time at the Literary and Philosophical Society Library. He was glad that plans had changed and that he hadn't been taken to the cathedral that day, although he's very glad to have visited the cathedral since then. While the Lit and Phil wasn't quite so grand as the library he had visited less than a fortnight before - the Sir John Rylands Library in Manchester - Blob thought the Lit and Phil was a lot more comfortable. This was the kind of place that a small soft toy friend like Blob could wander into and relax in and maybe find even more people as friendly as those who helped with the tea making. It was a place he knew he could return to and sit with a book or help his person write stories. The Manchester library was very grand and Blob was glad to have visited as a tourist - it was quite the adventure - but unless he became a famous scholar it wasn't the sort of place he would have wanted to be for relaxation.
Having drunk his tea and helped his person eat her biscuits, Blob was quite chilled. He wanted to explore the library some more before they left it to attempt at least a second job in the city centre. Blob's person felt a lot better too. This had been a great place to come and drink tea. It was quiet and bright and friendly and there were even some comfy chairs. Blob says that it's a mystery to him why they haven't been back yet. Yes, the cathedral refectory has been a good place to sit recently and yes, his person managed to write a little bit there, but surely the Lit and Phil would be a better place to visit with a pad of paper and a pen or with a laptop. [Blob's person promises that they will return there soon and they will just sit and write and find ideas and prompts in the books around them.]
Blob began to walk around the shelves of the library. There were so many of them and it would have been a struggle knowing which ones to look at if he hadn't had the time to look at them all. There were all kinds of different subjects and some of the books were very old. And then, right in the middle of the big room, Blob spotted something which filled his little heart with great joy. And he happy flapped about it with all his strength and all the freedom of a beautifully autistic Blob, proud to be himself.
He saw a children's library. Blob Thing thought this was a shining brilliance at the centre of the library. He likes it that children are placed in the centre. It's where they belong. Blob enjoys adult books. He does. He has probably read as many of his person's books as she has read and could teach her all kinds of things if she only bothered to ask him. He's a very literate soft toy friend. But he's also a child. He's only seven and a half months old so if he were human rather than toy then he wouldn't even have to buy a child ticket yet. Blob's person hasn't got very many children's books. There are some in the house that he likes. Lots of stories by Dr. Seuss. And she has some books for older children and is happy to tell you how brilliant the Skulduggery Pleasant series is and how everyone should read it unless they're an evangelical Christian. She knows of one Christian who started reading the first book of that series and decided the best thing to do would be to stop reading and burn the book. It's the only book that Christian has ever burned so it must be implausibly terrible.
Blob would like to have a few more picture books, especially for his sister Winefride. She's non-verbal. She isn't stupid but she hasn't yet learned how to read difficult books. Blob finds that Dr Seuss helps her a lot and she really likes the way the rhymes sound when he reads those books to her. He hopes one day soon that he and his person can teach Winefride to use some form of augmented or alternative communication. That would make things a lot easier, especially for Winefride, who sometimes gets a bit frustrated if Blob's person doesn't quite understand her.
Blob was very happy indeed to see this Children's Corner. He was a little confused though as to how it could be a corner when it was right in the middle of the big room.
Blob enjoyed looking at all the children's books. He knows that the city library has a children's section too and is, at this moment, asking his person why they haven't taken Winefride there to choose some books. Then they could sit at home and Blob thinks that some simple books like that would really help his sister. It's all very well taking her for fun days out but she needs to be helped to be the best possible version of herself that could ever be, just like Blob has become more than he ever believed possible.
Blob Thing also enjoyed making some new friends in the library. He wondered if this girl was going to be his friend but as he approached he discovered that she was just a cardboard model of a girl rather than being a real friend. But it turned out okay. Because while the friendly girl wasn't a friend, sitting in front of her was a friend. A real one. A very lovely bear. He had a lot of stories to tell about life in the library and he thought for a minute that Blob had come to live there too. The bear was a little sad to learn that Blob was just visiting and thought that they could have had great fun there together. Blob said that next time he's in the library he'll come and say hello to the bear again. That might be one of the reasons why he's so keen to return.
There were other friends to find too. Blob found them chatting on one of the shelves of the library. It's a good library like that. There aren't lots of signs everywhere warning people that they have to be completely silent. The rabbit and the frog. Blob thinks they said their names were Peter and Jeremy but he's not quite sure. He was very brave and went to say hello to them and they had a good talk about the library and about the shelf they were sitting on. Blob Thing likes the sound of a book called "When We Were Very Young" because he is very young. And he likes the sound of a book called "The Wind in the Willows" because he knows he would like listening to the sound of wind in the willows if he was in a forest of willow trees on a windy day.
Here's Blob posing. He's amazingly good at posing. He was just leaving the children's library and wanted this picture because it could have lots of books, a statue, a savage book - which Blob's person says is written by a quite local author - and, most importantly, the smile of Blob himself.
The visit to the Lit and Phil was proving to be fantastic. Blob just wanted to have a quick walk around the rest of the shelves and then leave the library until another day. That would be something to look forward to.
A note. Blob Thing has managed to write his blog every single day for seventy-four days. There will probably be some gaps from this point on. Early tomorrow morning he's going to a four day conference for autistic people so may not have time for writing. And then he's going to a four day conference for Christian people even though he's never been a Christian and his person isn't a Christian any more. And then he's got to go to Sussex for his person's family commitments. All in all, there might be lots of days missed in the last month. But he'll try to write as often as he can.
[1388 words]
No comments:
Post a Comment