The Benefits of a Barbara Twig
by Mary Jo Rabe
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 |
conclusion
Annegret put Barbara’s laptop to good use for the next two days and spent all of her afternoons and evenings entering books into a file for the University library.
As she told the twig, she felt physically ill when she saw just how valuable the books were that were hidden in the basement, books from the 16th and 17th centuries, books she should have long since cataloged and made available. Annegret had honestly never had the time, because the library just didn’t have enough personnel, and she prioritized supplying the employees with the current information they needed.
The twig seemed to expand its size, giving Annegret the feeling that she could still save the books.
After Annegret e-mailed the University library a list, they quickly sent over one of their experts to look at the books. Then, the head of the University library wrote a letter to Annegret, praising the treasure trove of books located in the Chancery office library and pleading for the Chancery office to have these books cataloged as soon as possible and made available to scholars.
She took the letter to Father Tauber on Monday. He, of course, had already seen it. All correspondence ran through the Records Office. “What do you think I can accomplish with this?” Annegret asked him. As so often, she felt slight pangs of jealousy when she looked at Father Tauber’s spacious office with the state-of-the-art equipment and comfortable chairs. However, his spotlessly clean and empty desk looked depressing.
He read the letter carefully. “This is good,” he admitted. “But possibly not enough to persuade the Archbishop and Vicar General to go against the recommendations from Frau Grob and Herr Hollenbeck, who are powerful heads of departments. Your library needs a passionate defense along with a few hints to intimidate the two lawyers.”
“I can’t give you the e-mails I collected from the two of them,” Father Tauber continued. “The fact that I can access all the e-mails that run through the Chancery office needs to remain my secret. You have the information you need. It’s up to you to use it.”
Annegret shook her head. “Herr Schlossberg won’t do anything that might anger Frau Grob or Herr Hollenbeck. I’m not invited to the meeting with the Archbishop and Vicar General, and I can’t crash it. And with the culture of submitting to hierarchy in the Chancery office, no Archbishop would risk angering his head of Personnel and Finance by listening to a lowly librarian. The “Dienstweg” is sacred in this place.”
“By the way, the name of the auction house Frau Grob and Herr Hollenbeck have been communicating with is Auktionshaus Steinberger in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland,” Father Tauber said.
“Thank you,” Annegret said. “That might prove useful.”
She returned to her office and saw smoke blowing out the open door. Without thinking, she ran into the office, grabbed the bud vase from the window ledge, and then coughed her way back out into the hall. She felt the twig shaking and told it not to worry, that it was safe now. To distract it, she talked about what Father Tauber had told her. Now the twig was genuinely angry. Its buds contracted.
Barbara was standing in the hall but was coughing too much for Annegret to ask her what had happened.
Two janitors ran to the library armed with fire extinguishers. When they finally let her back into the room, Annegret saw the two scorched and soaking office chairs and a still smoldering laser printer. An Advent wreath with candles lay on the floor. She put the bud vase back on the windowsill. The twig seemed relieved and swayed back and forth joyfully.
“What happened?” Annegret asked.
“I brought you an Advent wreath,” Barbara said. “You didn’t have one on your desk. I lit the three candles for the three weeks of Advent, but somehow the wreath slipped off the desk and one lighted candle fell on each chair and the cloth seats and backs caught on fire and the flames went higher and higher. I didn’t know what to do, and so I opened the door and ran for help. I’m so sorry.” She was genuinely upset.
“Don’t worry about it,” Annegret said. “No one was hurt; that’s the important thing.” The twig swayed, nodding its agreement.
“And this could have happened to anyone,” Annegret lied. “The maintenance people will just have to see what they can do about the damage.”
Barbara left and returned with Herr Gehrke, the head of Maintenance. He laughed when Annegret asked about repairing her chairs. “No,” he said, “I can’t even begin to explain why that’s impossible. I’ve already gotten you some replacements out of storage, both of them new and legal with five wheels. We’ll replace your chairs and the printer within the next half-hour.”
Annegret walked back to her office where the door and window were now wide open. The whole library area still stank of chemical smoke, and it was cold. The twig radiated a cheerful feeling, and Annegret relaxed.
“I’m so sorry,” Barbara said. “I don’t know how it all happened. But I have to go to a class now. I’ll be back tomorrow, if it’s all right with you.”
“Sure,” Annegret replied, “see you then.” She walked over to the window as the two janitors moved the old chairs and the printer out into the hall, wiped up the stone floor, and wheeled in the new equipment. She looked at the Barbara twig on the windowsill. The green bulges were cracking open, and you could see something white almost emerging.
“I’m glad you’re all right, little twig,” Annegret said. “Things definitely could have been worse.” The twig’s blossoms seemed to dance happily.
Her boss’s meeting with the higher-ups was scheduled for Friday. Annegret prepared documentation for him to take along.
On Friday, Annegret leaned back in her new office chair and checked the e-mails on her new computer. It was so damn discouraging. Just when she had the equipment to make work enjoyable and easy, she had to assume that her days and the library’s days here were numbered.
There was a brief knock on the door. The twig seemed unhappy. Its blossoms shrank slightly.
Annegret said, “Come in.” Her boss, Herr Schlossberg, entered the room. He was about fifteen years younger than Annegret, of medium height, extremely thin, and sported a haircut so short that his head almost looked shaved.
Father Tauber had told her once that the man had been a chubby, unhappy teenager and now enjoyed being an anorexic, adult man. Each of his many girlfriends was skinnier than her predecessor. Father Tauber had access to all kinds of information.
“You wanted to talk to me before the meeting?” Herr Schlossberg asked.
Annegret stood up and handed him a folder full of documents. “Here are statistics about the library’s collection and our many users as well as letters of appreciation from other libraries we cooperate with. Maybe the documentation will help you prevent Frau Grob and Herr Hollenbeck from shutting down the library.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Sometimes it’s better not to make waves.” Annegret understood that he didn’t want to risk becoming unpopular by supporting the library. The twig glowered by opening and closing its blossoms, something only Annegret noticed.
“I wish I could be there,” Annegret began. “If there are any specific questions, I might be able to help.”
Herr Schlossberg didn’t even try to smile. “It’s an upper-level meeting,” he said. “You tend to get too emotional about the library.”
Annegret managed to keep from telling Herr Schlossberg what she thought, but she noticed that the twig shared her anger. It swayed back and forth furiously.
Herr Schlossberg looked around. “Where did the new chairs and the new computer come from?” he asked.
“There have been a few accidents,” Annegret said. “The Maintenance and IT Departments replaced only what was necessary without specifically billing anything to the library.”
“Where is the student you have on loan from the registrar’s office?” he asked. “I always want to meet everyone working in my department.”
“She should be here any minute,” Annegret began.
“Well,” Herr Schlossberg began. The twig trembled, but no longer with anger, Annegret felt, more like with anticipation.
At that moment Barbara burst through the door, stumbled on the door sill, and bumped into Herr Schlossberg. She shrieked. He stepped back, lost his balance, and fell to the floor, hitting his head. He stopped talking, and his arm seemed to be bent at an unnatural angle. Annegret took one look at his glassy eyes and called an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived within ten minutes with the accompanying emergency doctor, an advantage to working in a building in the downtown area. Herr Schlossberg regained consciousness and wasn’t sure that he wanted to go to the hospital, but the doctor insisted.
Annegret sent an e-mail to Frau Grob’s secretary telling her that Herr Schlossberg wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting that day. Fifteen minutes later, an e-mail from the archbishop’s secretary popped up in Annegret’s inbox, inviting her to take Herr Schlossberg’s place at the scheduled meeting. The Archbishop was very busy and didn’t want to schedule a new meeting.
Barbara stood trembling next to Annegret’s desk. Annegret assured Barbara that the accident wasn’t her fault and collected the documentation she had tried to give to Herr Schlossberg. The meeting, in the archbishop’s spacious office was to be in an hour.
Annegret watched large, white blossoms on the Barbara twig on the windowsill. They looked exuberant and, as Father Tauber had said, felt empowering. “Thank you for the encouragement, little twig,” she thought. She was certain that the twig was beaming with delight. The blossoms got brighter.
After the meeting, Annegret floated back down to the ground floor. She went to her office and called the hospital. They told her Herr Schlossberg allowed them to give her his health details because he wanted her to deliver the information to the various people in the Personnel Department who would take care of the usual bureaucratic processing. He had a mild concussion, and his arm was broken. He wasn’t supposed to return to work for a week.
Annegret knocked on Father Tauber’s door. “Success,” she said when she walked in. “Herr Schlossberg isn’t seriously injured, and the meeting went better than I ever could have hoped.”
“I never thought Frau Seiterich would cause damage to human beings,” Father Tauber said. “I assumed she was just a menace to inanimate objects.”
“She can’t help it,” Annegret said. “I’ve gotten used to her. Thank you so much for the dirt on Frau Grob and Herr Hollenbeck! I couldn’t have defended the library without your help.”
“The letter from the head of the University library persuaded the Archbishop and Vicar General immediately,” she continued. “They both said they wanted to do more for our library since it contained such valuable works. Our book budget will be doubled, and I can fill two more positions in the library.”
“Didn’t Frau Grob and Herr Hollenbeck try to sabotage that?” Father Tauber asked.
“Of course they did,” Annegret said. “I looked them both in the eye and said that the Steinberger Auktionshaus in Sankt Gallen had called. They glanced at each other and didn’t say another word. They realize that I know what they were up to. I am so grateful to you for this tip.”
“I owed you a favor,” Father Tauber said dryly. “Frau Seiterich is happy working in the library, and my equipment in the Records Office is protected from accidents.”
“Too bad she wants to be a lawyer,” Annegret said. “She has the makings of a good librarian.”
“She can get a library degree after she is licensed to practice law,” Father Tauber said. “There are plenty of law libraries that need good people.”
“Right,” Annegret agreed. “Then I can meet up with her at library conferences. But now, I have to get back to work. I have rooms full of old books that I have to catalog.”
“And thank you for the Barbara twig,” she continued. “You were right. It strengthened my resolve, and somehow the catastrophes I experienced after it was on my windowsill only resulted in equipment damage and subsequent replacement. Dr. Schlossberg’s injuries, fortunately, turned out to be minimal though painful. I think the twig deserves the credit for events in the library, even if that sounds crazy. Still, I never had any good luck in this place until you brought me the twig.”
“Well, I have heard things,” Father Tauber said. “Unfortunately I never got any help from a Barbara twig. But maybe I didn’t make enough of an effort to treat it well. The next time I need a miracle, I’ll ask you to get me some help from your twig.”
“The twig seems to like me,” Annegret said. “So, it might do me more favors.” Then she walked back to her office.
When she opened the door to her office, she saw the bud vase full of huge, beautiful, white blossoms, spreading joy throughout her office.
“Thank you, little twig,” Annegret said. “I don’t know how you did it, but it’s obvious that you saved my library. I owe you so much, and I will always take good care of you. Maybe we can do other good things together.”
The twig graciously agreed. This time, Annegret was certain that she understood what it was saying.
Copyright © 2026 by Mary Jo Rabe
