Was this bookstore always here?

“The Helicon & Athenaeum”

Len stoped in his tracks. He’d walked this street dozens of times, on the 20 minute trip from the coffee shop closest to his apartment to De Vere College downtown. He’d surely gone past this address before; was there always a bookstore here? The name was in gilt lettering nearly a foot tall, with the slogan in smaller letters beneath,

“A Curated Collection of Bound Knowledge & Ephemera from All Times & All Places”

and much smaller, painted into the bottom corner of the storefront window,

“est. 1836, C. Hiron, prop.”

It was a bright, sunny morning. Len was taking his time today, too, having heard via Twitter that his 10 AM class [SOCI 2016: Global-Local Politics] had been cancelled because the professor was sick. So maybe this really was the first time he noticed this particular storefront, the stacks of books, the enticing bookcases beyond — it seemed like the store went back forever; Len couldn’t quite see the back wall, just a seemingly endless run of bookcases.

And it looked like something straight out of Dickens’s London — like a movie set, really. Len looked over his shoulder, half expecting to see the camera crew. Was this really a bookshop, and on the same street he walked every morning?

Without thinking, Len pressed his nose to the glass of the window, shading the morning sun with his hands. Towards the back of the store, almost too far in to see, he saw a young woman, her short black hair in a cute bob that curled in just at the neck and framed her face. He couldn’t help but stare. He wondered what color her eyes were? Her old-fashioned dress set off a petite figure nicely; though it had full sleeves and a buttoned-up collar, it also had a shorter skirt that flared (was that a petticoat? & stockings?) and she was already climbing up 3 steps on that ladder…

“Can I help you?”

Len jumped back with a start, and with some embarrassment.

He turned immediately to the voice, and was confronted with another extra from central casting: School Marm? Sexy Librarian? Her brown hair shone almost red as it caught the morning sun, and she was dressed to the nines: full skirt, smart blouse, a vest and tie, her hair in a neat bun done up with chopsticks, and those round glasses that seemed like antiques. Len caught himself smiling, but swallowed his pickup line unuttered as soon as he saw the stern look on her face. “Definitely School Marm. Or Governess. Unsexy, demanding governess,” he thought to himself.

“Ah, um,” Len managed, “That is, I’m looking for a book?” Len forced a weak smile, and took his first hesitant steps through the door of The Helicon & Athenaeum.

##

Words by M. Blind. Art by MTCopyright & Lissa Pattillo