Just Casing the Joint

Find the children's room!

I'm sure the architect thought that it would be easy to tell the children's room from the rest of the library from the enormous decals on the glass that separates the children's room from the rest of the downstairs. Well, take it from me, it doesn't work.

It seems as if every day someone wanders down into the children's room, having no idea where they are. "Oh, is this the children's room?" is the response to my "This is the children's room. May I help you?" The children's room is a clean, spacious area with interesting features that I'm always pointing out to the unwary who blunder into my arena. But it looks just the same as the rest of the library.

Today I've had two people who just wandered in and claimed they didn't need any help, walked around, and then walked out again. They both said they were "Just looking." All within about ten minutes of each other. Between interactions with people looking for books, I wonder about what they thought they were doing. What does "Just looking" mean?

• "I just wandered a bit too far and now I'm trying to save face by pretending I just want a look 'round."
• "I was looking for another part of the library, which doesn't seem to be down here, but I'm not going to ask you about it so I don't look stupid."
• "I was supposed to meet a friend here but I'm not sure where."
• "I'm scoping out fire exits in case of an emergency."
• "I'm scoping out possible 'drops' for hiding drugs/money/stolen articles/national secrets for someone else to pick up."
• "I'm the advance for a library terrorism ring trying to find out how many of us will be needed to keep the victims from escaping when we come in guns blazing. You sure have a lot of doors down here."

It doesn't pay to let the mind wander on a quiet (thus far) Sunday.