The Statues

The entrance of the library was flanked on either side by white marble busts. The statues were of men and upon closer inspection Zita saw that they were Dante, Plato, and Socrates. Below Dante was a plaque which read:
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate
Zita knew this was the opening line of Dante's Inferno, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". It was a very strange thing to put on a library. Throughout her years of school Zita had only ever been told to spend as much time as possible in the library. "The library is there to help you," all her teachers said.
The statues outside were damaged and chipping but Zita thought nothing of it as she went into the building. Sure they were creepy but they'd been outside for quite awhile. They were bound to get some damage. She walked into the library and was greeted by another statue, Sophocles, and his blank stare. It was unnerving to say the least.
Whenever they saw slides of old statues in history class or she went to an art museum with a statue collection, especially ancient Roman statues, Zita always noticed their eyes. They had no pupils and because of this always seemed to have vacant almost zombie-like expressions.
       She walked up the stairs to explore each floor of the library and was greeted by more statues. Thomas Aquinas and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow greeted her with blank stares from between the shelves of books. At first she didn't see them but as she turned a corner she nearly bumped into Longfellow. It gave her quite a fright because she wasn't expecting anything to be there. The statue was on a pedestal at about the height of a person so she thought she'd run into a person. When she realized it was another statue she walked away, slightly dizzy from her collision.
       The second floor housed four more statues. Homer was on a landing, facing the stairs. He seemed to watch anyone going up or down the stairs. From what she knew of Homer he was blind so his blank stare didn't bother her as much. Demosthenes was near a collection of work tables and Cicero and Sir Walter Scott were hiding in the stacks. Expecting statues in the center of the stacks Zita managed to avoid colliding with them.
       She continued her statue hunt to the top floor. When she arrived at the very top of the library she wasn't greeted by any blind white marble eyes. This encouraged her and she was relieved the feeling of being watched was gone as she left Homer's line of sight. Another group of desks and a door to a patio were to her left and upon walking over there Zita discovered the first female statue of her statue hunt. She was labelled simply as Laura. Zita didn't know who Laura was but made a mental note to look it up later.
      Three more statues were between the bookshelves. Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Shakespeare, and Beatrice were in a line facing the large window at the opposite end of the floor. Zita knew Beatrice from Dante's Inferno and began wondering at the placement of the statues. Wouldn't it be logical to have Dante and Beatrice together?
      Then she noticed that Beatrice was a fictional character. The 12 statues before her were authors, poets, playwrights, and philosophers. Laura, as Zita found out later, was the subject of love poems by Petrarch. She may have been a real woman but certainly wasn't a writer. The only two female busts were of fictional, idealistic women created by men. Surely this was something to wonder at. Maybe at another university this would be less unusual but Zita attended a college only for women. She had thought this would mean women's rights were more prevalent on campus but here, in the library, a place where many students spent quite a bit of time, women were not properly represented.
      Despite her questions she enjoyed sitting on the top floor near the large window, facing the same direction as the three statues. She could be found up there between classes, looking at the trees and the clear blue sky as she daydreamed. She found the quite, nearly deserted floor an ideal place to be alone. She had yet to see anyone up there after over two months when the strange things began happening.
      Zita couldn't figure out why someone would move the statue. They hadn't moved any of the other statues, on any floor. Only Beatrice had moved and had moved so she was perfectly straight. Pranksters didn't usually go to the trouble of lining the things they move up straight. Dismissing it as a weird prank, despite her better logic, Zita went back to her daydreaming.
      The next day she looked to see if one of the employees had moved her back to her original position. She hadn't moved. After noticing that Zita noticed something else. Beatrice, unlike most of the other statues, actually had pupils. This made her appear to be looking forward, out the window. Today though, instead of looking forward, Beatrice's eyes appeared to be turned to the floor giving her a bashful expression.
Throwing a quick glance at Shakespeare Zita noticed nothing different. He had his usual facial expression, smug. His eyes faced forward, towards Beatrice and the window. Zita couldn't figure out an explanation for Beatrice's changed facial expression so she attributed it to her wild imagination and returned to her daily activities.
      Later that week Zita was talking to a friend and the statues came up as a topic of conversation. She told her friend about her weird experiences with the statues on the top floor and her friend demanded to see. They went up to look at the statues and sure enough Beatrice was facing the opposite direction (Zita could prove this by Beatrice's name plates). Her friend found this too creepy so she moved Beatrice back, discovering that the statue couldn't move from side to side, just rotate in a circle. Leaving Beatrice facing the window again they went back to their conversation and then to their separate classes.
A few weeks later, after the vacation was over, Zita returned to her chair on the top floor. Beatrice had not moved again during Zita's week of absence and she was glad to see that. She sat down and began reading a book. As she was reading she kept hearing a low noise, like a soft crying, coming from behind her. It grew louder as she tried to ignore it, figuring it was just a girl who came up here to cry because it was quiet.
       Finally she turned around looking for the source of the noise. She couldn't see anyone. Not to be discouraged Zita stood up and started walking around. Still no one was in sight so she gave up and began walking back to her seat. As she passed Beatrice she noticed that Beatrice had something near her eye. She went over to examine it and discovered something even stranger. Beatrice's eye had a tiny drop of water in the corner and a trail down her cheek.
When she began to think Beatrice had been crying because she didn't like being moved back Zita began to feel guilty. It was her fault the statue was sad. For some reason it didn't cross her mind that it was a statue, solid marble, she was talking about. She tried to go back to her reading but the guilt was too much. Standing up she walked back over to Beatrice and placed her hands on either side of her.
She had expected the statue to feel cold, as all the others did as well as all the marble she had ever touched. Instead of being cold the statue seemed to give off a low heat. Startled Zita took her hands away but then thought about it. Beatrice was a statue. She couldn't cry and didn't have body heat. It was probably just her own heat that she was feeling. After resolving this she tried again and succeeded in turning the statue again. Beatrice was back to facing Shakespeare.
       "I won't tell Dante," Zita said with a laugh as she walked back to her chair to collect her things. A quick glance back at the statues allowed her to observe Shakespeare's now identical bashful expression. Instead of being scared at the change that had happened in the second her back was turned Zita smiled. They weren't hurting anything and seemed to be in love. Beatrice and Shakespeare wanted to look at each other so who was she to judge them? A window was only interesting for so long.
As she collected her things she decided it was really very romantic. If they were real people it would be a love story worthy of a novel. They went against the odds to catch a glimpse of each other, despite never being able to be together. It was sweet really.
        Zita headed for the stairs with her bag over her shoulder and a smile on her face. She had done some good for someone that day, even if it had just been a statue. As she began her journey to the stairs she thought she heard two simultaneous whispers of "Thank You" come from behind her. She couldn't be sure if it was her imagination but her smile widened and she whispered "You're Welcome" back as she began her climb down the stairs. She could just see the statues from the stairs and noticed how beautiful Beatrice and Shakespeare looked framed by the window.
The quiet and peaceful calm of the top floor made it feel like what she imagined Heaven is like. Bright natural light flooded it. As she left the beauty of what felt like her personal space she felt as if she was descending into Dante's Inferno. The darkness of the floors below her brought the phrase she had noticed when she entered the building for the first time:
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate