Fiction Friday: Swallow this

Gertrude didn't completely trust this Mr. Swallow. I mean, for pity's sake, what kind of a name is "Swallow" anyway? It sounded like one of those made up TV-type aliases to her ears. Or perhaps a bad knock-off of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. And why the immediate introduction?

It wasn't that he said or did something obvious to make her think that he was something other than what he claimed to be, other than the introduction, which she had to admit could be chalked up to good old-fashion manners; it was just a funny feeling she got, a tickle in her belly similar to the flutter she get when driving down Wickham Ave when late for work.

He was polite with no trace of an accent, rather plain in appearance and of medium build -- he was not much cause for alarm. He did, however, wear a fedora, which was not in fashion. At least not here. In this decade. But who knows, maybe he had some sort of Don Draper, Mad Men-esqe fetish, which was really none of her business. His request for very specific historical material was not completely out of the ordinary or overly obscure either, although it certainly wasn't your run-of-the-mill request in this large but ordinary library.

She longed to follow him to the stacks to see if her suspicions were grounded, but unfortunately she'd just had her morning coffee and couldn't avoid a hopefully quick trip to the ladies room.

As she walked down the far side of the fiction stacks she craned her neck to see if she could spot him, but she saw only Billy Jackson at the computer bank, who she swore was somehow eluding the libraries censorware and watching porn during his long and frequent visits. She halfheartedly wondered if they should try switching from Cyber Patrol to Smart Filter. Although she had not actually caught him in the act of viewing pornography, the satisfied expression on his face during his time online brought to mind only one thing. Which was not the sort of 'flutter' she should be thinking about while at work! She probably did have to have some proof before she formerly requested they change software programs though.

But never mind, Billy wasn't her concern this morning...