Colm

Works the returns desk at the Edgewick Branch. Wears a brass name badge reading 'Colm'. Cuffs buttoned. Hair combed back in a line clean enough to mark with chalk. Young — younger than Morri expected of the Edgewick clerk.

Sets tools down square to his work with the precision of someone taught to do so. Maintains a professional stillness that is cousin to Morri's own trained composure. When the reader returns an unexpected result, he scans the book a second time identically — not rotating or re-seating it as a person correcting a misread would, but seeking a second look at the same information. His hands go completely flat on the counter afterward, betraying the yanking of his attention. Picks up his stylus after Morri leaves, then sets it back down almost immediately.

Briefly shows an unguarded reaction to what the reader display shows him — a flicker he corrects quickly. When he looks up again his face is flat in a way it was not before; he has put something away. Lets a gap sit rather than filling it, becoming more a man waiting for Morri to leave the longer the silence holds.

Economical and procedural at the outset. When delivering the unexpected result, takes a beat — the length of time a trained person takes to choose between accurate and deflecting phrasing — before committing to 'not coming up' rather than a more informative formulation. Offers 'processing error' as explanation with that same beat of selection in front of it.