The Inspector

In order to re open the library we had to pass a safety / health inspection. A man wearing a hard hat scrutinized every aspect of the the library. I had never seen him before. Perhaps he lived in another wing that I had not yet discovered. His stern expression led me to believe that he was no joke. He instructed Todd, Malory, Olivia and myself to wear hardhats. Why we suddenly needed to wear hard hats, and why Todd thought it was necessary that were were all there for the inspection I'll never know. But I shut mouth and played along. We walked the inspector through the library. He saw everything in ruins. The desk split apart, and the shelves knocked over. Naively, Olivia and I thought as soon as we got rid of the yellow substance that that was it. We assumed that Todd would be so happy with our success that he wouldn't want to investigate any further. That's why we left everything as it was. Stupid, I know, but that was our thought process. The inspector didn't make any comment about the current state of the library negative or positive. All he did was scratch away on his clip board. It was check mark after check mark. I was ready to hear news that we failed when he finished the tour. With an unchanging pane face, he rips off a paper from his clipboard and hands it to Todd. "Just fix the book shelves." "Does that mean we passed?" Todd asks. "I see no reason not to pass you." The inspector lowers his head slightly. "Have a good day." "Wait, what about my desk?" Malory asks, after the inspector is out of ear shot. "What about it?" Todd says. "You saw it, I can hardly do any work the way it is." "It's fine. We'll fill out some paper work." Todd replies. "But will I get a new desk?" She asks. "Yes, as soon as I fill out the paperwork." He He says exasperated. "Ok, because I really need this." Todd ignores Malory and turns to us. "I don't know how you did it, but you did it." It's funny at that moment all I could think to say was the cliche " It was nothing." We see Todd smile for the first time in a long while. "Don't be modest. You two did a good thing. It's time to celebrate. We'll throw a meeting in your honor." "Where?" Olivia asks. Todd glances at his wristwatch. "It's about 12. Everyone will be at the cafeteria. Let's do it there."