THE PHANTOM OF BALME LIBRARY

Crevice. Orifice. The stillness of the shadowy night made more harrowing by the chirpings and creaking of sinister forces. The quest for knowledge and the gnawing desire to find answers to deep philosophical questions and my own inexplicable passion for books drove me to Balme library anytime I am not having lectures. The library was literally my home. For I frequented the place more than any one else and may even rival that of an apparition that may happen to haunt the place. If I am not shuffling or strolling the long linking corridors of the library, I will be descending stairs jostling people with innocent naivety and they always responded with a hostile grimace, which seemed to say that are you the only person in hurry. And a face wrinkled temporarily by anger and evil scowl. When I am seated, I am more of a nuisance than a learner. I will be rummaging through the pages of fat books that have never been opened before. It always gives me a haven where I read most of the classics, which no man is interested in reading. But what is worrying and annoying is the unavailability of books which are current. Most of the books are so old that when one opens a page their brittle nature makes it break into pieces. Even though I try as much as possible to be meticulously careful with the ancient books, I always end up causing a grave damage to the old fashioned books which to modern students are irrelevant. Incongruous, prosaic quaint. But I always enjoy reading them for deep mysteries of the past the ancient method open sesame.

Some of my buoyant friends of commonwealth hall have launched long and bitter tirades at the ancient library for failing to meet modern standards. Some have lampooned it savagely for lacking the very books that students would be interested in. some maintain that after it was established by the illustrious Balme it has failed to illume the dark towers of Legon and its main function now on campus is purely decorative. I do share the sentiments of my disillusioned friends for if a library would lack books, would it be that of the library of the premier university?

As for my friend, who has never read any book from Balme library, but that of his own lecture notes, said the library has failed due to neglect – which is due to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities. They are aware and have always being aware that most of the books that goes into the hands of good students never return and they also refuse to stock it with new ones - current books. Most of the students are apt and wouldn’t hesitate a minute to steal a book which belongs not only to Legon and its bearded lecturers but that o f Ghana. those who don’t want to fall into the quagmire of being biblioklepts but borrowers never return the books but are apt to cast vicious and venomous and unfounded criticism on the weakness of the ancient library. The educationists also sit on the fence in their black coats always complaining but none donates a single book even a pamphlet to the library.


One of my friends vehemently burst out in a frenzied manner charged with wild emotion. He said in clenched teeth. I don’t side with you even though some of your statements about Balme library may be fallaciously true. Do you know that Balme library even though falling in a modernist society the little books there have never been opened even though it is the course that some students are taking? We have forgotten that we as students hate reading. If Balme library were to be stocked with all the books in this world, it will still be there for ages unread.

My good friend responded in a cool calculated tone of finality. Whether the books would be read or not, the library must be filled with up to date books.

Until now the arguments of a big library on legon campus without books is still raging furiously on campus. The susceptible are hasty to lampoon it as not a library at all but the discerning ones have identified some qualities of the ancient library and still go there to read one or two books but they never leave their notes books behind.


I sympathized with those who maintained that Balme library is still Balme library, the premier library. And it is worth visiting until something terrible and harrowing happened to me at Balme library which was to haunt me for ever on campus.


It was in the middle of the night. The air was cold and serene and the tall majestic trees and solemn buildings were as silent as a crypt. The silence was so intense that my own footsteps made me afraid. I stuck my books under my armpit and then hurried to Balme library.

When I reached the library, I was terrified. My hair stood on end and I started trembling. All the doors of the library and windows were opened but there weren’t any one there. Not a single soul. I was confused. The library was deserted and it had assumed supernatural propensity. I tried to run back to my hall but my legs were glued to the sport. I attempted to scream with a wild and violent passion but no sound came out. My eyes were riveted to one of the reading rooms. The windows were opening and shutting in a strange mysterious way. I made one last effort to veer my eyes to a different location but it wouldn’t go. What is happening to me and what was going on in Balme library? I couldn’t get any solution to my predicament. I stood there still debating with myself what was amiss when I suddenly beheld something like smoke taking shape in one of the windows. I was horrified by the strange apparition. I watched it taking demonic shape with fear. I looked at it closing with clanging knees .the amorphous object never achieved any concrete shape, it filled me with awe. Who could it be? Is it the ghost of Balme himself? What was happening to me?


After some minutes I was able to see what the misty figure was doing. The apparition was reading. But one strange thing that happened which made me doubt my sanity was that the apparition was sitting down like a person reading. but the most mysterious thing was that there was no book in his hands. After sometime he will stand and move around the ghostly corridors bringing out invisible books. I was deeply appalled. My heart was beating very fast. My eyes were popping out. I was paranoid. I was seized by fright to the extent that I was unable to breathe. I gathered all the little strength left in me and screamed loudly that the ghost itself was also frightened and it disappeared suddenly.

When I came to, I was sweating profusely. I was literally panting. My room mates were laughing at me. When I told them that I have experienced a terrible nightmare, they laughed again and said that it was caused by my eating late in the night and a long lecture followed. But I was the one who experienced it so I never argued with them.


I saw a ghost at the Balme library in my dream last night. I told my good friend. He was reading books that were not there. In fact when I saw the apparition, it was busily reading from empty shelves. My friend burst into laughter. This dream is self explanatory. It simply means that there are no books in Balme library. It is a ghost library. It will appear in an enchanting form to the eye, but when you approach it, it will vanish into thin air.

I went to Balme library the next day. I had written the titles of more than two hundred books and I was sure I will get at least ten at the library. I was deceived. For more than two hours I could not get even one of the books I was looking for. I stood in the middle of the library disappointed. Failure stared at me in the face. I was desperate. Then what my friend told me the previous day after I told him about the nightmare came bursting in my mind like torrents of rainwater. Balme library is a ghost library. There are no books there worth reading.