KATI

The cold air pinches at my cheeks as I stand outside the library doors. I ran to get here but now I don't want to go inside. I'm meeting a boy... I shake my head. It's no big deal. It's not an actual date or anything.

I take a deep breath and go inside. Hot air from the vents above blasts onto my head and I hurry into the front part of the library, where the café area is. The place isn't too busy tonight. I spot David right away, sitting at one of the tables. How did he get here before me? He's reading some sort of textbook and doesn't notice me. I walk over.

"Hi," I say, sitting down at the table.

David looks up from his book and smiles. "Hey." He's wearing a black t-shirt that says Enterprise in small robotic letters on the front.

"Hi," I say again, then start chewing on a nail. David closes his book and doesn't say anything. "What are you reading?" I ask, glancing at the cover of the book. It has a colourful image of space and planets and animals.

"It's a science book." He hands it to me and I take it. It's heavy so I lay it on the table and start to flip through it.

"Wow." There are lots of pictures and diagrams of the layers of the Earth and of different animal species.

"You can take it home and borrow it if you want," David says, watching me.

"Okay, thanks." I close the book, not wanting to be rude by reading it while David waits. His eyes look into mine for a second and I quickly look away. He leans down to grab his backpack, which has another book in it.

"What book is that?" I grab for it but David slides his backpack away.

"It's nothing," he says.

"Is it another science book?"

David shrugs then begins to zip his backpack closed. I grab it and pull the book out. David seems surprised but doesn't take it from me. It's another heavy book, all black book with no title on the cover. I open it up to see what's inside.

"Wow, what's this?" The letters are tiny and the pages very thin.

"It's the Tanach." David says.

"The what?"

"Tanach. It has the Torah and the Prophets and the Psalms."

"It looks like a Bible."

"It is." David watches me like he's scared I'll wreck his Bible by holding it. I look down at the pages. It would take forever to read this.

"Have you started reading it yet?" I ask.

"I've been reading it since I was six."

I look up to see if he's being serious. "Really? So it's taken you that long to read it?"

"No, I've read it more than once."

I smile. "Wow. So what happens in it?"

"Lots of things. Don't you have a Bible at home?"

"No." I frown. "It's not like everyone has a Bible."

"Sorry," David says, looking uncomfortable. "I just thought since you were..." He doesn't finish his sentence.

"God's girl?"

"Yeah."

"We've never had a Bible," I say, handing his book back. David starts to say something but then stops.

"Will you read me some of it?"

"Me?" David looks down at the book in his hand then around the room. "Sure." He gets up. "Let's go somewhere else."

I get up too and follow him out of the café area and into the historical books section. The chatter from the café fades as we get farther away from where all the people are. We pass by some tables with chairs but David stops at a corner of the room instead and sets his back pack down on the floor.

"Which story do you want to hear?" he whispers, sitting down and opening his Bible. "The story of Jonah and the Whale, the story of Moses, the story of David and Goliath, the Creation story..."

I sit down beside him, not too close but close enough so I can see the words in his book. "Any of them."

"I can read some of Job."

"Okay."

David takes a breath then begins. "In the land of Uz there was a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared Adonai and avoided evil."

"The land of Oz?"

"Uz." David shows me the word in the book and I lean over to look. Our shoulders bump and he doesn't move away, so I don't either.

"Why did Job fear God? I'm only scared of God when I do something wrong."

David takes a moment to answer. "I think he doesn't actually mean fear, like the way we know it."

I nod but don't ask him to explain, because I want him to keep reading. David sits up straighter and continues to read. Job is a godly man who has everything. But then one day Satan says to God that Job would surely curse God if everything is taken away from him. So then all his oxen are slaughtered, lightning destroys his thousands of sheep and his sons and daughters die when the roof caves in on them.

"In all this Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of Adonai." I glance at the word 'Adonai' in the book to see how it's spelled.

"Excuse me." A security guard lady says, startling us. "The library will be closing in five minutes."

I rub my eyes. The library is closing in five minutes? We were here that long?

"Oh no!" I jump up from the floor. My side feels cold from being separated from David. "I have to call my mom!" I say to him.

I run to pay phone at the front entrance of the library. Mom's going to be so worried. I didn't think I'd be here until close!