A long long time ago at the British Library

It was sometime around 2002 or 2003. I was around 16 years old, standing in the British Library. The night before, I had watched some random TV show where they briefly mentioned a British author who was apparently hysterically funny. That’s all I remembered. Well, that and something about a veterinarian. So there I was at the library’s computer terminal, typing in every possible combination of words: “British, funny, animals,” “funny vet,” “hilarious UK author animal jokes.” The system wasn’t just unhelpful. Fifteen minutes in, I was getting desperate. I was about to give up when this girl—maybe my age, approached. Maybe she saw the words i was typing on the terminal. “I think you’re looking for James Herriot,” she said. My brain immediately went, *Yes! Herriot! That’s the name!* She also showed me the rack where they had his books. But that's it. That's all the interaction we had. I didn’t think about that moment again until recently, when I stumbled across the show *All Creatures Great and Small* on Amazon Prime based on Herriot's books. I feel bad i never took that interaction forward. We could have been good friends considering our interests. But wherever she is, I hope she found whatever she was searching for in life just the way she helped me find what I was looking for. So, to that girl: thank you. You were a small but shining moment of kindness in a teenage boy’s messy life. I hope the world has been kind to you in return.