"I'm looking for The Day After Tomorrow," the elderly woman at the desk told me. She paused, and I opened my mouth to ask VHS or DVD? when she began speaking again.
"I want VHS, but the lady downstairs said you don't have it." Again I opened my mouth to ask if she'd like me to order it, and again I am prevented from speaking.
"It's about Art Bell, you know."
"Well," I successfully spoke. "That makes it all the more interesting, doesn't it? I can probably order it from another library if you'd like."
"No," she told me. "I want to read the book. It's called The Great Global Storm."
We have no book called The Great Global Storm, nor do we have anything written by Art Bell. We do have a book entitled The Day After Tomorrow, but it's in no way related to the movie.
I check ILL. No Dice. I search Amazon for The Day After Tomorrow under books, and discover that not only is it written by Whitley Strieber, (lending potential credence to an Art Bell connection, if that makes any difference,) but it is in fact entitled The Day After Tomorrow and bears the same cover art as the DVD. This is, of course, not what she wants.
"No, that's not it. Art Bell wrote The Day After Tomorrow. He said so on his show."
"This is the one the movie is based on, ma'am."
"No it's not. That isn't written by Art Bell. Art Bell said he wrote it."
I check Amazon for books written by Art Bell. He co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Whitley Strieber, and I assume this must be what she's talking about. I show it to her, she decides that may be the right one, we find it on ILL, and she decides she doesn't want it.
"Are you sure?" I ask, feeling surprisingly calm under the circumstances. "It doesn't cost anything, it'll take a couple of weeks, but we'll call you when it gets here. All you'll have to do is come pick it up."
"No, thank you. I just wanted to know if you had the VHS. My neighbor was going to tape it for me, and I told him not to go to the trouble, but since you don't have it, I guess I'll just have to ask him to tape it after all."
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