Having achieved a nice, long, warm nap, the orange cat began to unfurl himself and stretch his front legs across the shelf of books, then moved forward to stretch his hind legs behind him. Slowly, he sat up, his striped tail falling gracefully over his front paws, and surveyed his domain.
The bookshop had seen a steady trickle of customers in and out all day. Eliza behind the counter was constantly moving; when she wasn't ringing up books, she was locating books, or taking in donated books, or organizing the ever growing precarious stacks of books, or getting. caught in a conversation with women who just want to talk about the book they've been reading lately.
But Fides was having a very usual day.
His morning was spent walking the topsofthe bookshelves and combing through teh aisles for books that would be needing homes today and knocking them down to teh floor. And then he took his morning nap in the sun streaming through the eastern arching windows.
Then he heard a group of college students come in and strode over to ensure they received a healthy dose of destress-purring, for which he was rewarded with a handful of fishy treats Eliza handed out. And then he took a very brief nap on one of the student's chemistry books.
then a man with a booming voice walked up to the counter in a huff so Fides ran over to stand guard with Eliza - not that she needed help, but everyone calms down a little when they see an orange cat.
Finally, he had found another nap on a particularly cozy bookshelf near the front door. And that was when she walked in.
"Hello!" Eliza sang from behind the counter. "Are you looking for anything?"
"Oh, hello," said the girl's father.
But from his sitting position on the shelf, Fides could see the little girl stood in the doorway, eyes raised to the mammoth sized book shelves spanning the entire Victorian building, mouth gapping open in awe.
And Fides, being the Secret Keeper of the bookshop, could see something else. The dark purple light that surrounded the little girl pulsated angrily.
The cat hopped lithely from his shelf to a short shelf to a stack of books and finally to the floor right in the girl's path. She gasped and clutched her little hands at her chest and then smiled. "Kitty!"
Fides stepped toward her to show how friendly he was and the girl raised a hand toward him. He rubbed his head against her small hand immediately, purring loudly. She giggled to herself and kept petting him for as long as he let her.
But Fides had a job to do. After one more head rub, he took a few steps away from the girl into the aisles of books and looked behind him to make sure she understood. Indeed, she had started to walk after him.
He was glancing through the dwindling stacks at the end of the aisles that Eliza as assembled from the books he knocked off that morning.
Not that stack. Not that stack. No, not that one either. Hmm, maybe, oh yes!
"Mraow!" Fides said to the girl as he turned a corner. The girl giggled and sped up to follow him.
Fides Brough her to a stack of books and began rubbing against it until the top most book fell over and into the girl's way.
When her eyes landed on the cover, her giggle stopped. Her face fell. The invisible purple light around her started to grow, slowly at first, then all of a sudden enveloping the entire aisle. Slowly, she stooped down to the book and picked it up. With one hand, she ran a finger under the title and then stroked the illustration on the front cover for a long time.
Fides gave her a second with the book before stating, "Mraow!" He rubbed against her ankle then sat and looked up at her.
"Riley! Where did you go?" Her father called from the front of the store.
Fides gave a quick meow and starting nodding in his direction. Before turning the corner, he looked back at the girl.
She was looking down at the book again, her eyebrows knit together. Fides gave another "Mraow!" the got her attention and she started following after him again.
"Oh, here you are, Fides," Eliza said as the orange cat came into view. He jumped up onto the checkout counter so she could pet him and whisper, "Were you helping her?"
The girl came into view, still holding the book, and looking up at her father with big watery eyes.
"Hey, Riley, did you find something," her father asked.
The girl gave a sheepish nod and reluctantly handed the book over. Her father knelt down to looked at it and sighed.
Fides watched a the same purple light began to pour from her father now, mixing with her's and filling up the space.
He took the book and bent to kiss his daughter on the top of her head, then stood and handed the book to Eliza behind the counter. "We'll take this one."
"Of course," Eliza offered a warm smile and took the book.
The hand drawn illustration on the cover was a mother looking down and smiling at her daughter.
Red String: The Book of Goodbyes.
Eliza's breath caught in her throat but her kept up her smile and began ringing up the book.
Fides moved to the front of the counter, rubbed against the girl again, and prompted some petting from the father. When the book was paid for a bagged, the father lead the girl out of the door. But she stopped for a moment and whispered, "Thank you, kitty."
Comments