the return of crazy mother

crazy mother comes up to me with her two kids and asks for the prizes for this week's puzzle. i pull out the bags of prizes and let them go through it telling them that they each get one prize each. then crazy mother says that she has another child who isn't here and she should get a prize for that child. i explain to her that only children who are actually here can get prizes, and that the next time this mystery child comes to the library she can pick up her prize. she grumbles about this and then the regular children's librarian comes over and reiterates that it is a one prize per child system. but this is not the last we'll hear of crazy mother. oh no.

as i'm leaving the children's room to take my break and work on my ny times crossword puzzle, i see crazy mother talking to one of our teen pages (page: a teen who puts away books for minimum wage). and i hear her complaining to this very nice innocent teenage girl about the injustice of the prize distribution. so i say to her, "ma'am, if you have a problem with the prizes you must speak to the librarian. you can't talk to the pages. they have no authority over this."
then she explodes into rapid fire mode and starts saying that she is friends with the page, she is just talking to her, she can talk to whoever she wants.

now, for a second i wonder if i screwed up. maybe crazy mother is friends with the page. maybe they're neighbors and they know each other and she has every right to be speaking to her. so i just say calmly, "well ma'am, i heard you talking about the prizes and i just want you to know that the pages can't help you with this. only the librarians can help you if you have a complaint."

then she says that she knows the page's family and that she was talking to the page because she is SO upset that her son reads SO many books and he gets, and i quote, "absolutely nothing."

at this point i just walk away because we have given her children several prizes each week. what does she want? we should give her son an iPod every time he reads a Curious George book? no, i think he'll get a plastic dinosaur finger puppet like everyone else.

a little while later i find out page, who as i've said is the sweetest girl ever, and i ask her if she really is "friends" with crazy mother.

"i've never seen her before in my life," she tells me. then she goes on to say how this woman just accosted her and started ranting about prizes.

"so she doesn't know your family?" i ask.

"no, and then after you left she started speaking to me in hindi."

now, this is odd because i always thought our page was hispanic. as if reading my mind she adds, "i don't even speak hindi. i speak spanish."

ahhhhhh, crazy mother strikes again.