During the time that I was an undergraduate engineering student I had a good friend, who I will call Stan, who like me was working to complete his senior project in order to graduate. He spent a lot of time in the library and along the way met a reference librarian named Silvia. The following is Stan's story about that relationship. Note that no person in this story is under the age of 18.
Here's Stan's story:
It was my senior year and in four months I expected to graduate with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. First, however, I needed to complete my senior project that dealt with planning the route of water, sewer, and gas lines underneath a busy highway and an adjacent active railway line. To say that I was spending a lot of time in the library digging through both books and academic journals would be an understatement. Much more time at my preferred study carrel and they would probably want to affix a brass plaque to it in my honor.
My work was, not surprisingly, highly methodical and everything was filed away in an extensively divided three ring binder. Ever since beginning the project late last semester I had been driving the poor science and engineering reference librarian, Silvia, crazy with my detailed, but often arcane questions on everything from railroad right-of-way construction to subsoil composition for upstate New York.
Silvia was a very nice person and unbelievably patient when it came to helping me. Physically she looked like a stereotypical librarian, in other words a bit on the frumpy side with clothes that did not seem to have much, if any, style and always wore her hair up. In short, she was a lady who probably was in need of a serious makeover. I did surmise from her various comments that this was her first job after graduate school which meant that she might have been all of 25 years old--not that much older than me as I was to turn 22 in the fall.
It was a Wednesday morning, and I was again at my carrel reading up on railway lines, a topic that I found interesting but hardly one that would allow me to make small talk at any social gathering. The article I had just finished had an extensive bibliography, which when doing research is highly valuable because those entries become additional sources. I got up from my desk and went to the other side of the science and engineering floor where Silvia had her desk. Dressed in a gray tweed skirt, a rather shapeless drab turtleneck sweater, nondescript black flat-soled shoes, and tortoise-frame glasses, Silvia probably would not arouse even the horniest of fraternity jocks, if any ever were to enter the library let alone come up to the science and engineering floor, a place well-known to be inhabited by nerds. Still, every now and then Silvia had shown me a side that was unexpected. For one, despite her nerdy look and unbecoming hair style, she had great eyes.
As I approached her desk this morning, she looked up and said, "Good morning, Stan, you probably are in search of another author."
"Hi, Silvia. Yes, I am. I'm looking for a work by Erich van Dorn, an engineer from the University of Eindhoven. Here's the citation."
She turned to her computer, did a little searching, and then said, "We don't have that particular volume, but there are some others that might be useful. Let me get you a printout."
"That would be great," I said.
"Here you go," came her reply as she handed me the sheet off the printer, but also gave me an incredible smile. I never saw this side of her before and it seemed a bit out of character.
I left her desk and proceeded to head back into the stacks in search of the elusive volume that hopefully would at least make this part of my senior project complete. I was in the right section, at least insofar as the topics were concerned, but nothing by van Dorn. I methodically went through the entire row, but no luck.
Frustrated I returned to Silvia's desk and told her that I could not find what I was looking for. Without the least amount of expression, she got up from her desk and headed for the stacks that I had just perused. I followed her, but several paces behind her obvious officious strides. We got to the section, and she looked up and down, then standing on tiptoes she reached for a volume on a high shelf. Her arm extended and it pulled her sweater against her chest as she did so. It was at that moment that it became obvious that Silvia had a very nice set of boobs but just that they were well hidden behind her extensive librarian camouflage.
I was still admiring the view when she retrieved the sought volume and turned towards me. She caught me looking, gave the briefest of smiles, and handed it to me.
"Thanks, Silvia," I said. "I appreciate the help."
Just as I turned to head back to my carrel she said, "Anytime. The pleasure was all mine."
"Huh? Did she just say that?"
The van Dorn volume had a lot of valuable material, and I spent the better part of two hours absorbed in it making lots of notes along the way.
It was a little past 11:00 when I finally looked at my watch. Just then I sensed someone approaching my carrel. Let me also say that I had strategically chosen this study location because it was away from the normal foot traffic of the floor and more or less guaranteed that I would not be often interrupted.
I looked up and of all people it was Silvia who was approaching. "How did that volume work out for you?" she asked.
"It was great. Much more information than I was even hoping for. But thanks for asking."
"I'm more than glad to help," she said casting me now the biggest smile that caught me again totally by surprise. Moreover, there was something that I could not help but find sexy lurking behind her very defensive facade.
A week later it was more of the same for me in that I continued what seemed like an endless search for the necessary technical material that would assure the creation of not only an acceptable senior project but one that would be a useful tool for launching my career. Part of the search was that I seemed to be making endless inquiries of Silvia, who much to her credit was going above and beyond to help.
