I was feeling pretty good about being granted so much leniency by the library. I had previously been scolded for returning a DVD in the - horrors! - outside drop box. They told me I was lucky the DVD hadn't been broken during its long fall from the slot to the bottom of the bin. I apologized and told them I returned it in the outside drop box because my daughter was crying. This was true. What was also true was that I was on my way back from a run so I was a) sweaty and b) in sweatpants, so I didn't exactly want to go walking into the library to return a DVD. I was glad the library seemed to have forgiven me, and now trusted me enough to return a DVD in one piece, if a little late.
Anyway, back to the missing DVD. I believe it was later that same day when Magdalena came walking into the room with a grave look on her face, saying, "Sorry, Mama." That is never a good sign. She led me to the scene of the crime and there was the library DVD, whose period of loan had been so graciously extended, in pieces on the playroom floor. I think she had been trying to wrestle it into its case and stepped on it by accident, breaking it completely in half.
I immediately began to dread returning the destroyed DVD to the library for two reasons. First, because that is never a fun trip to make. But second, because I had already given the librarian the breezy explanation, "Oh, that DVD, we must have left it in the player at home, how silly of us." Now, bringing in the carcass of that same DVD, it would look like maybe, just maybe, I had lied about the condition of the DVD to begin with, that it had in fact been a mess of broken shards all along and I had tried to pass off an empty DVD case to the library to escape my penalty.
Of course, that wasn't the case. But hoo boy, after I did finally take it in this morning and saw the replacement cost, I kind of wished there was a way to escape the penalty. Because here's how much good old The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is going to cost me: 123 dirhams. That's approximately $34.
Sticker shock didn't set in until after Magdalena and I had left the library (with the bill unpaid - I didn't have that much in my wallet). Now that I realize how much money that is for a single DVD, I'm going to go back in and ask if I can procure the DVD by cheaper means myself, and then give it to the library. I know the Tucson library allowed that kind of deal. The only trouble might be getting one of the cheap new copies I see listed on Amazon, here to the UAE.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed...and Magdalena away from any more DVDs.