I went to the public library today to get a specific book. The fiction section has about 8 shelves, so, 16 rows. There is exactly one person in fiction, and, of course, she is standing in front of the book that I want. My book is belt level directly in front of her. The woman is scanning titles at eye level and up. My wife and I stop, each of us on one side of the woman, obviously there, obviously eyeballing a certain book directly ahead. Does she get a hint? Does she move? Of course not. She stands and scans. We are unacknowledged.

I think about reaching into the breech and grabbing the book, no harm done, but don't. "Excuse me," my wife says. No response. "Excuse me," my wife repeats and reaches in to quickly fetch out the book. The woman never looked at us, replied, or anything. Maybe she was deaf, maybe mad at us for for being inbher space, possibly standing her ground as she was here first by golly!, maybe mentally challenged. Still, weird. And with 16 rows! Of course she's there!