shorty

yesterday i was sitting in the library hoping for any kind of distraction to keep me from doing my homework. to my delight a younger girl, probably a freshman, walked in and started looking for a book on the shelves. normally this wouldn't have been that interesting, but this girl was exceptionally short and petite. in fact it looked like should could have fit inside her own disproportionally large backpack. my amusement for the situation increased as her eyes searched for the desired call number, and ended up fixating on the very top row. there was no way she would be able to reach that high. i watched intently as she thought about what to do. she looked at the top row, then glanced around searching unsuccessfully for a stool, and then, with her neck strained, stared back at the top row. meanwhile i'm over at my table watching the whole thing like it was some sort of nature show on discovery channel. what was she going to do? was she going to ask someone for help? scale the shelf like a climbing wall? shake the thing like a malfunctioning vending machine until the desired object fell down?
to my amazement she went for it. she put her toes at the bottom of the shelf and reached her hand up. her fingers fell short of her goal by a solid eight inches or so. getting on her tippy toes and extending one arm she somehow managed to reach her middle finger to the bottom of the book's spine. since she wasn't able to grasp it she slowly slid it out horizontally.
when she had the book halfway out i realized that it was pretty inconsiderate of myself to just sit and watch while this poor girl struggled with this book. feeling bad for getting a few chuckles out of her predicament, i moved to get up and help her. As I pulled my headphones out and began to stand, a thought stopped me and forced me back into my chair.

was i even tall enough to reach the book for her?

on her own she dislodged the book, caught it as it fell, and triumphantly tossed it in her backpack as she marched away.