Library rule #234: No charging in the study rooms.

The boy came into the library around three in the afternoon. He seemed lost, looking around as if he wondered where we hid the study rooms. He came to the circulation desk where two people stood.

"Where do you hide the books?" he asked.

"Bingo," said the circulation librarian.

The librarian who worked on computers sighed and placed a ten dollar bill into the circulation librarian's outstretched hand. The circulation librarian cackled and the boy waited.

"I just, because I'm tutoring someone?" the boy said.

"Are you charging for the service?" the librarian at the computer said with a voice that promoted startling.

The boy seemed startled. "Well, um… No, not really."

Hands went to hips. "What does that mean?"

The circulation librarian, snapping the ten dollar bill and dreaming of Ruffles Potatoe Chips with that yellow does, she said, "Oh, Walter, let the boy make his money."

The boy said, "I'm trading fractions… I mean, I know fractions. His mom wants me to teach them and she'll give me free swimming lessons."

"Barter then. See Walter, you need to learn to shut it," the circulation librarian said. "Up the stairs. Mind you don't step in anything and don't go in the children's department."

The boy went up the stairs and found the study rooms and inside the study rooms he found a thousand rooms with a thousand and one doors. The last we knew he had not found the door that lead out.