Benny and Sheila

There once was a boy who wanted to know everything.   During his free time, he could always be found in the library with his nose buried inside a book.  Nobody ever bothered him, because he was always so focused on what he was reading that they thought interrupting him would be an intrusion.  And they were right, the boy didn't want to be bothered.  He wanted as much time to himself as possible, so he could read all the books that would help him know everything there was to know; things about life, the world and all the things in it, even the depths of the ocean and the far reaches of space.   He never even wondered why they didn't talk to him.  That is, until the day Sheila did. 

"Excuse me, what are you reading?", she asked. 

Normally Benny would have been annoyed by the question, but when he looked at her, he suddenly forgot what he'd been reading about.  She had sandy-beach hair that twirled over her shoulders in pigtails, and big eyes that were farther apart from each other than any he'd ever seen.  Their hazel irises glowed brightly, matching a green dress and orange backpack.  Pools of freckles glittered off her cheeks, as if she'd been dusted by a sheet of tiny stars.   Such a sight was entirely distracting to Benny.  He had to get it out of his head. 

"Oh, it's nothing," he said, returning his eyes to the book. 

"The Never-Ending Story," she said. "Sounds like a good one!" 

Benny looked at her strangely.  "It's not The Never-Ending Story, it's the 2016 edition of the World Almanac." 

"Uh, what's an Almanac?", she asked. 

He looked at her like she wasn't from Earth.   "Not a story", he said, dryly. 

She looked confused.  After a moment of silence she asked, "If it's not a story, then why are you reading it?" 

"I have to know everything, so I can win Jeopardy! some day." 

"Wow!", she said.   "And that book has everything there is to know?" 

"Not exactly. It's just a bunch of tables and charts and short descriptions of things that matter." 

"Things that matter...", she repeated. 

"Things that matter, yes. What's the matter with you?", he asked, without trying to be funny. 

"Nothing's the matter," she replied. "I was just thinking about how sad it would be for someone to glance over lists of books without actually reading them, and foods without ever tasting them, movies without ever seeing them, musicians without ever hearing them, or events in history without knowing how they changed things, and all those other things a boy needs to know to be on Jeopardy!  Why, it would be like knowing everything, yet knowing nothing at all." 

No response came from Benny.  He sat there dumbfounded, maybe even entranced.  He had to confess that she had a point.  In the Almanac he'd been memorizing a chart of world capitals.  While he knew some of the landmarks in the cities listed, like Big Ben in London and the Acropolis in Athens, he hadn't ever seen them in person, and couldn't even describe what the ones he hadn't seen looked like.  All the knowledge he was amassing was empty, like The Nothing in the story she'd mentioned.  Yes: The Never-Ending Story.   Interesting how she'd thought he was reading it. 

"Well, if you had to know everything, what would you read?", he asked. 

"I can't read," she said right away, without any sense of shame.  Instead of looking embarrassed, she sipped from a packet of apple juice like it was nothing.” 

"Oh, I see, um...  Well, if you can't read, then what are you doing in a library?" 

"So many questions.  You really do like to know everything!" 

She hadn't answered him, and didn't say anything for several moments, so he went back to reading.   How peculiar this girl was, to be in a library without knowing how to read.   No wonder then that she didn't know what book he was reading.  Then why had she assumed it was The Never-Ending Story?   Benny found himself increasingly perplexed by this girl. 

"I came here because I don't want to know anything.   I suppose that if there were only one thing one needed to know, it would be love.  But I already have that.  Don't you, Benny?" 

"Love?"  Benny thought that was just silly.  She'd stolen that from a Beatles song, he was sure.  Or was it the philosophy of the Dalai Lama?  He tried not to laugh but couldn't help himself. 

"What's so funny?", she asked, with an expression of concern crossing her face. 

"Nothing, I'm sorry.  It's just that love can't teach you anything about the world, and it certainly can't get you onto a game show.  Sure, society needs it to function- if there weren't any love then it would all go under.  But it's essentially useless when studying something like biology." 

Sheila brightened up the moment he'd finished making his point.   "Oh, but Benny, you do need love to study.   Most who read about biology love the study of life, don't they?  And in your case, it's the love of books.   Bibliophilia.  So, you see, everyone who gathers information is doing it out of love." 

"Bibliophilia?  That's a big word for someone who says they can't read." 

"Hmmm, well I can't say I love books, seeing as I've never read one, but with a little help perhaps I would." 

Benny thought for a moment. He wanted to show her just how magical a book could be, with all the ways it could open your mind and take you on imaginary adventures.   If only there was a way to show this illiterate yet clearly intelligent girl the secrets that books possessed, it would bring him the greatest pleasure.  And then it dawned on him; there was a way! 

"I'll teach you, Sheila," he said. 

"Me!? Why me?" 

"A girl as smart as you shouldn't have to go through life without being able to read.   Not everyone who wanders into a library feels right at home, like you.   Why, it would be criminal of me not to offer." 

"Oh no, Benny, I couldn't.  That's very nice of you, but I would only slow you down." 

He knew it would interrupt his studies, but for once in his life it didn't matter to him.   She may have been a bit eccentric, but he was warming up to her quickly.  Besides, he'd read somewhere that people learned better when they were teaching something, as opposed to just reading about it.   

    After Benny insisted on teaching her to read, her face lit up with joy.  She hugged him outright and cried with glee, surprising him and everyone else in the library.  He thought she smelled nice, and not at all like it was an invasion of his personal space. 

"So umm, yeah, just pick a book to read.  I'll read it to you and explain what each word means." 

"Ok Benny, but we should go somewhere private, where nobody can see us.   I don't know want anyone to know... you know..." 

"Oh yes, of course." 

For the first time she looked uncertain of herself.  She didn't want anyone to know she couldn't read, meaning she was human after all.  That was the moment Benny fell in love. 

 

The first book she picked was Colorland by Betty Walters, a book that Benny hadn't read but had heard was good.  It had been in the Young Adult section, so he thought it wouldn't be too difficult of a book to teach someone to read. 

When he opened it and started reading to her, something magical happened.  They were both transported to the world inside the book.  It was a land that was full of blue things: blue skies, blue seas, beaches and rocks made from shards of sapphire, and mountains of cobalt that had fields of bluebells.  Even the clouds took the shade of a light blue color, as if the sky itself had penetrated their structure.  Blueberries grew on all the shrubs that lined the beach of gems.  In the ocean they saw hundreds of blue tang fish swimming about, searching for the cyano-plankton that caused the water to shine with a heartbreaking turquoise. 

Benny was dumbstruck for the second time that day, while Sheila didn't look fazed at all.  He knew very well that it wasn't possible to be physically transported inside the book one was reading, yet Sheila seemed to think it was perfectly natural.  She walked about as if she'd already been there before, making Benny wonder if she was some sort of witch girl who'd enchanted him with spells of love and magic. 

Off in the distance he spotted a city of coral that gleamed with seashells that were every color of the sea.  He continued reading and as he approached the city, he saw that there were hundreds of people crying in the streets.  He presumed that something terrible had happened, but after a while it seemed like people who had every reason to be happy were crying instead.  For instance, a girl who'd found an earring she lost picked it up and kept on crying like she'd been before.  Benny didn't need the book's explanation to figure out what was happening.  The people were blue in the metaphorical sense, and therefore they couldn't help but cry, even if they should've been happy. 

Sheila stopped and said we have to help them, but Benny pointed out that they weren't in the book so they couldn't interact with anyone.  All they could do was observe things as Benny read each word.  Sadly, she yielded and sat on the ground so he could teach her how to read the rest of the words. 

When the chapter was over, he closed the book and they were transported back to the library.  It was all so hard to believe.  Each word he'd read to her had materialized into something right in front of them. 

"Are you some kind of sorceress?", he asked. 

"No, but I have been called a source of unrest, whatever that means," she said. 

"That was the most remarkable thing that's ever happened to me," Benny said.  "A girl who creates imaginary worlds when being read to.  It's like what happens in the book you thought I was reading.  The Never Ending Story.  As Bastian was reading it, he came to find the world in the book really existed, and that he was reading his own story.  You must have known this would happen." 

    "I did, Benny," she said definitively.  "The whole point was to teach you something.  Experiencing something is far greater than reading about it.  If you really want to be on a game show, you need to go out and do things." 

    That was when a wild idea came to Benny's mind. 

    "You're absolutely right, Sheila.  But not entirely right.  If I read to you every single fact in every single book in this library, why, I really would know everything, because you'd show me all their realities with that sorcery of yours." 

    Sheila folded her arms and let out a laugh.  "Using me to know everything?  Now there's a thought." 

    "Well, I wouldn't be using you any more than you'd be using me.  You said you wanted to learn how to read.  Well, I'd be teaching you the same way you'd be teaching me!" 

    It was a mutual benefit, as love often becomes.  Sheila consented to the proposal.  Together they witnessed historical events without actually being in them, ate foods without really tasting them, saw movies without really seeing them, heard music without really hearing it, and met famous people without really meeting them.  As Sheila learned to read, she was able to transport herself to the worlds inside her head on her own, and Benny felt that he'd really experienced each fact he learned.  What he didn't anticipate was that Sheila had been right all along; as he grew to love her, he found that this love was more important than anything she'd shown him in all the books he'd read to her.  It was more important than all the trivial facts in this old world put together.  He grew to love her so much that he no longer cared to read for her in order to gain knowledge; he would only do it because he loved her and she enjoyed traveling with him in her mind. 

    After Sheila learned how to read and she no longer needed Benny, she kept reading all the books that he'd never read to her.  She read so much and saw so many things that her love of knowledge surpassed even that of Benny's.  

    Years later, she was the one who ended up trying out for Jeopardy!, and ended up winning millions on the show.  Many thought that Ken Jenning's streak of 74 straight victories would never be broken, until she came around.  Benny was in the audience for each of her 105 wins.  She was so beautiful, and a fan favorite in every sense, that for the first time America's Sweetheart had enough intelligence to complement her looks.  Young and beautiful women wanted to emulate her, so they studied harder and tried to look smarter in the eyes of men, for the men had been so enamored by Sheila's perfectionism that they sought the same in other women.  From Sheila and Benny's passionate thirst for knowledge there spawned a cultural revolution that changed the country; one that valued thoughtfulness in place of indifference and humanism in place of hedonism.