The Story: I was cleaning up one evening before closing time, picking up used guest passes and whatnot near the computers in the children's room, and what do I find? An empty medicine wrapper, complete with instructions and drug facts. The pill in question is no cough drop or antihistamine; it is a morning-after pill.
I like to imagine that after a night of passion, a woman realizes she forgot to take her birth control, and rather than risk it, she runs out and gets some insurance against an unwanted baby. Then, for whatever reason, she has second thoughts, and wonders what it would be like if she were pregnant and if she did keep it.
"But how will I know what children are like without having one?" She asks herself. "I know, I'll go to the library!"
Little did she know what children who hang out at the library are really like. After an afternoon sitting amongst the video game obsessed pre-teens shouting over each other on the computers and watching the parade of children throwing temper tantrums as they're hauled out by their parents, she thinks to herself, "Fuck this! I am never having kids." and dry-swallows it, not bothering to throw away her trash, walks away, and never looks back.
Now, I want to be clear that I support a woman's right to do whatever she pleases with her body, including choosing to not have a baby by any medically sound and legal methods available to her. The person who left this at the library did just that, and I do not fault her for it.
However, she chose not to throw the wrapper in the trash, and by littering and leaving it for me to find and clean up, whoever this woman is has willingly made herself fodder for jokes.
No lesson or resources here, except to expect the unexpected, a constant in our profession, and take the laughs where you can.
