![]() Why was a coin stuck in an old book? The coin looked old, the eagle’s feathers scratched and faded.īefore he could do anything else, there was a flash. He looked down and saw an old quarter facing up at him, apparently having just slid out of the book. A swirling sound like a spinning coin coming to rest on the ground. A 1960s Ventura Books paperback edition of a classic H.G. He knew he was blowing it, but he felt like a bystander watching himself step on rake after rake.Īfter she turned around and left, Raymond scrunched up his eyes and smacked himself in the head with the book he’d been shelving. Raymond then blurted out, “it’s just that not a lot of girls read good sci-fi. “Yeah,” he said, adding another “yeah” again after a few moments of uneasy silence. “I like to read sci-fi, and I like to read Philip K. His experience with living breathing women was limited, and his experience with attractive blondes with short bobbed hair in light summer dresses who like classic sci-fi was nil. In Raymond’s defense, he hadn’t had the need for an opener in quite some time. He could tell from the look on her face it was a bad opener. “You like to read sci-fi – I mean,” he stammered. Raymond had been restocking the sci-fi section, meaning he was taking apart one of the stacks of books left randomly on the floor and finding spots on the shelf to wedge them in. At the very least he had a pleasant face, though it was a face that could have used a quick polish of optimism or enthusiasm.Īnd then a nerdy pretty woman appeared at the end of the paperback aisle. Tall, but all the advantages of his height were negated by an awkward hunch. Dark hair a bit too long to be neat, a bit too short to be stylish. Most of its books had been sold to the store by local people who had just finished clearing out their basement, giving Sparrow’s the feel of a basement that had yet to be cleared out. Raymond had been running Sparrow’s for three years. It was not the kind of place to meet a nerdy pretty woman in a whimsical hat. It barely had a window, just a smudged pane of glass facing a set of stairs just below street level. Sparrow’s Used Books had just that – used books. Unfortunately for Raymond, he didn’t work in that kind of bookstore. ![]() Maybe the whimsical hat would have a flower in it. ![]() Ideally, a nerdy pretty woman in a whimsical hat sipping a cappuccino by the window while a local poet reads something clever over the sound of acoustic guitar. If you knew Raymond, you’d think a bookstore would be the perfect place for him to meet a woman. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |