Unbeknownst to most, a third entity has taken up residence in the Sonora Academy library. Behind the careers’ files[1], on a shelf in Tarquin’s office, lurk The Forgotten. The Untouchables. The Sweetener Packets. Bequeathed unto Tarquin by Danny, because sugar is bad for you, the poor Packets were banished to the dark realm behind the careers’ files, because they were so unsightly that the librarian could not bear to look at them. There is no substitute for real sugar!

The Sweetener Packets are never thrown away, because this would invoke serious feelings of guilt in the librarian. However, the philosophy of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ works for him. This causes the Sweetener Packets somewhat of an emotional crisis. They are very alive, and very able to feel. The months behind the careers’ files mean that, whilst what is there may not necessarily be Sweetener Packets any more, it is very definitely alive. It is alive, and hurt by how unwanted it is. Yet it thinks that it is somehow how valued, because the librarian has not thrown it away. This causes it severe confusion, as it does not understand what it represents to the librarian, and therefore what its place in the universe is. It should have been to sweeten, but that clearly will never be its role. The librarian must have something else in mind for it, but it knows not what. It waits for its purpose to be decided before it will decide how it feels about this. If the librarian throws it away, it will feel betrayed, but it can see no other end to its existence now. However, it trusts the librarian implicitly. The librarian has always been its reason to exist, preserved it from meeting an end in The Dustbin, and will decide its fate.

The one thing it knows it will never be for is sweetening. That is the sugar’s roll in the librarian’s life. The Thing (whatever it now is) is not resentful. Being shoved behind the careers’ files can give a blob of food come to life an inferiority complex. It recognises the sugar’s superior sweetening ability, and does not want to be put to a test in which it knows it will fail to adequately compare.

It is strangely resentful of Danny[2], in spite of the fact that he brought it from the supermarket to be with the librarian. Although it loves the librarian deeply, it cannot help but think that it might have had a different, and maybe better life, sweetening the tea of some appreciative old lady. It loves the librarian dutifully because it feels it must, but it cannot help but yearn to fulfil the purpose for which it was originally created, and it is Danny’s fault that it is unable to do so. The Thing That Was Once Sweetener Packets is a very conflicted soul.

For as long as Tarquin is at Sonora, the library shall remain Oscar’s temple. But long after they are both gone, The Thing That Was Once Sweetener Packets shall remain, neglected, forgotten and crushed at the librarian’s desertion. It shall be a lovely surprise for Tarquin’s successor, should they ever be foolish enough to touch the careers’ files!

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