The Library of Babylon

          “So, what’re you going to do about Sharona, Tom?” Ed asked me today.

            “Nothing,” I replied, calmly.

            “Yes. I like it mate: a bit of playing it hard to get, treat ‘em mean ‘n’ all that.”

            I said nothing, but simply smiled. Ed was slightly perturbed.

            “You do like her though, right?”

            “There’s no one else.”

            “Good, I’d’ve been doing no picking up of soap for you otherwise. Right, well, I see the tactic you’re taking there, and I do appreciate its merit – it’s truly one of my favourites – but we’re slightly running out of time here. We can’t hang about forever.”

            “Really, Ed?”

            “Oh yes. Very clever. We woke up in each other’s bodies this morning did we? Come on, I’m just trying to help you, this girl is too special to screw up.”

            “It’s okay Ed, relax, fate will bring us back together if we just let it.”

 

*

 

            So while we waited for fate Ed taught me a few chords on the guitar and then I got stuck into Labyrinths, the book Sharona gave me. I’m half way through it now and will get back to it in a moment, but I have to briefly mention one story. It’s called the Library of Babylon. It describes an infinite library made up of adjacent octagonal rooms. In each room are hundreds of books, all exactly as long as one another, several hundred pages. Each book is a unique combination of random characters such that the library contains every possible combination exactly once. Therefore, for those that inhabit the library there must be, somewhere out there, a book that exactly describes their lives, past, present and future. Does this mean their lives are pre-ordained?