Renunciation, The

"Shhh!"

She opened her eyes. Had she heard something?

"Shhh!"

She had heard something. Something distinctly like a shush.

"Shhh!"

She was afraid.

"Don't be afraid." The whisper came from the same direction as the shush.

She wanted to dive down under the covers, but somehow she pulled herself up against her fear and looked into the gloom.

"Don't be afraid, but shhh!" It was a woman with short bobbed hair, a blue suit, and sensible shoes. It was Nancy Pearl. She recognized her right away. She had her action figure.

"Nancy Pearl!"

"Shhh!" said Nancy Pearl, the action librarian.

"What are you doing here, Ms. Pearl?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

"I'm here to tell you that you're not pregnant," whispered Nancy Pearl.

"Ah!" She hoped her voice registered neither relief nor disappointment at what she felt to be, at best, a non sequitur. Which, come to think of it, was the presence of Nancy Pearl standing inside her bedroom window. "I didn't know you were a fertility coach, too!" She said this out of politeness. But the intended perky note failed to penetrate the whisper.

"Hello? Book Lust? More Book Lust? Book Lust To Go? Book Lust in Your Dreams?" Nancy Pearl's sarcasm had no problem penetrating the whisper.

She had heard of them all except the last one.

Nancy Pearl wasn't done. "Book Lust: Casting Nancy's Pearls before Swine?"

Oooh, she felt that one. "Yeah, well, sorry? Are you recommending that I read something? To get pregnant?"

Did Nancy Pearl smile behind the finger held up to her mouth? "Shhh!" was her only response, after which there was the general appearance of vanishing.

She got out of bed and verified the presence of her Nancy Pearl action figure on a shelf with eight Beatles, a Blue Meanie, and J. S. Bach, whose Magnificat she now put on the CD player to help her get back to sleep.

She felt bitter already.