The Book Shoppe Blogophilia 51.4

Jorick and Katelina

“I need something to read! I get so bored sometimes!” Katelina paced around the ugly room, with its plastic furniture and mis-matched colours,  in yet another small dingy motel in some little Canadian city, of all things. What the hell were they doing inCanada? It amused her  to note that motels here could be as awful as in the mid-west where she and Jorick usually ended up.

Jorick sat in the only chair in the place staring into space and ignored her outburst. As always.

Finally Katelina, thoroughly exasperated, marched over to him, waved her hand in front of his eyes to grab his attention and pulled on his arm. “I said I NEED something to read.  This godforsaken town must have a book store and we have a car for once. Let’s go into town and find something to do.”

Jorick sighed wearily. Sometimes he wondered…  He finally hauled himself to his feet.. “Okay, okay we will go so you can stop your nagging and whining. It is not like we do not have books with us. I always take something to read when we travel.”

“Very funny. Your books are so old none of them were published after 1900. They are stale and old and musty. “Like you,” she muttered under her breath.

Jorick’s forehead shot up to meet his black hair. “What did you say?”

“Nothing, nothing, never mind. Whatever.”

Katelina looked at him in surprise. Not wanting to waste a minute before he changed his mind she snatched the keys off their peg,  threw on her coat and opened the door. “Then let’s go.”

Jorick stepped out into the cool night air. She followed, locking the door behind her. Not that there was anything in the room worth stealing, but she locked it out of habit.

****

The devil’s agent and his mistress

On the other side of town another woman paced. “This is absurd.  It’s Sunday night. You’re not working and while it’s nice being home together, I’m restless.”

Her lover raised his eyes from the crossword puzzle he had just completed and looked at her. “Well what do you want to do?”

“Today  in the paper I read about the recent book that won the Governor General’s award.  I would really like to read it. Let’s go to that new book store that  opened up not long ago.”

She waved her arms around in excitement,  the violet in her blue eyes flashing. The soul collector smiled at the sight.

“The owner thinks people need an alternative to the huge book chains and one of my colleagues said he wants to test his theory and see if an old fashioned cozy book shoppe can make it. He knows he can’t compete with the big ones so he plans on selling older editions of the classics as well as a good stock of Canadian literature, both contemporary and past best sellers.”

“All right we will go. I guess you do not get enough  books at work in the library.” His eyebrows danced with amusement and his eyes twinkled.

“Oh you’re teasing me,” she grinned.

 They picked up their coats from the front hall closet and walked out the door. She turned around and locked it.

 ***

The bell over the door tinkled as the soul collector and his mistress entered what appeared to be an old dark book shoppe. Actually that’s what it was called, The Olde Book Shoppe. The narrow opening felt crowded  with book cases  on either side. Instead of being dark they found it  quite well lit. And the polished oak  floor creaked. How charming. She could never resist the  smell of old books and  immediately wandered down the aisles leading to the back, gazing in wonder at the collection. “My goodness. Sweetie come look. The books in the  children’s section aren’t the newer versions in their bright contemporary covers, all censored for the politically correct, but are first editions of the originals. Let’s see what have we here? Grimm’s Fairy Tales” and  laughing in delight, “the Babar series and my favourite, Madeline.” She plunked down on one of the little stools scattered around, and with a pile of books at her feet started to  read.     

Her companion sighed. She will be at it for hours. His demeanor showed resignation, not annoyance. Looking around he observed that they were the only customers. On the  front desk a bell sat with a note. “Come in, relax and explore. Ring for service.”

As he was looking around he heard the musical sound announcing the arrival of another customer.  He had a few minutes to observe the couple who entered while they argued. His eye was drawn to the woman, blonde like his lover, but with longer hair, and not as attractive.

The scowl on the  man’s face, his tone and pitch of voice, as he punctuated his words with fists punching the air,  made his otherwise agreeable  appearance  (he had to admit) seem mean. “You said you wanted a new book to read. Look around. These are old books. I have old books.”

“Yes, but they may have new ones too and anyway they are organized in book cases with labels for each section. You seem not to believe in organization and book cases. When we’re home I can never find anything. They’re scattered around willy-nilly.” 

 Jorick muttered while he watched her skip  along to the romance section, of all things.

 “Ah romance,” she thought. I could use some of that.

The two men, deserted by their females,  looked at each other. Both fit the cliché of tall dark and handsome. The librarian was immersed in her books and unaware of the presence of the new couple.

For something to do, the first man wandered to the history section. He glanced at the occult area but walked  by with a small smile. An old green cloth  bound book seemed to leap out to him. The Franco Prussian War. It felt like the original edition. The sepia pages almost crumbled at his touch.  Well here is something I know about. Let me see if they got the dates right. So often these historians  don’t know the facts.

Jorick stood still unsure what to do. An unusual feeling for him. He always knew what to do or had something he needed to do. He drifted over to the literature section which was next to history. Ah Shakespear. He pulled out Henry VI turned some pages and found what he was looking for. Virtue is choked with foul ambition. He half smiled. I told Bill that would be a good line. He just didn’t give me any credit. Oddly first editions of both Dickens and the Harry Potter series were shelved in the next area. Well someone did their homework. That J.K. Rowling does share much in common with Mr. Dickens.

The man next to Jorick mumbled to himself while thumbing through an old book. “Ignorant fools. They did get the date wrong.”

Jorick, out of curiosity glanced at the gentleman. The soul collector looked up into the others’ eyes. He reminds me of Alicia the vampire I met a long time ago. Oh. And a look of recognition passed over his face.  Jorick looked into the Agent’s deep brown eyes and acknowledged him for what he was as well. Both looked away in amusement and disinterest.

“I’ve had enough. Katelina where are you?” The vampire shouted. “We have to go now.”

The disruption caused the librarian to jerk her head up from her reading. Who is that rowdy? She watched him stomp off and clutch the other blonde woman’s arm. Where did they come from?

“Enough. Let us go.”

The seated woman was about to call out to her lover to make this man behave when he called out to her. “My dear, the phone has  gone off.”

“Oh okay. I’m coming with you.” No way she wanted to hang around while that other couple fought. She ran up to her lover as he headed quickly to the exit. “That couple in there, he’s not very nice to his girl friend.”

The Devil’s agent placed her hand in the crook of his arm, patted it and said, “I will tell you later.” As the door closed behind them they heard the couple yelling and screaming at each other.

“Can we stop for cinnamon buns when you finish this job? It won’t take long will it? I’m in the mood for something sticky and delicious,” she said, squeezing his arm.

***

Haiku fun

Virtue choked with love

sticky and delicious too

down by the coulee

 

virtuousness chokes

sticky delicious vomit                           

the coulee dries up

 

virtue is choked with

evil, down by the coulee

blood viscous and sweet

 

down by the coulee

draining the crimson goodness

 virtue choked with death

 

You can find Jorick and Katelina here

 

written for

Blogophilia 51.4 Topic: “Virtue is choked with…”

 Bonus Points:

(Hard, 2pts): incorporate a Coulee

(Easy, 1pt): mention something sticky and delicious