Curious

Chapter 13: Foreign Memories

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Foreign Memories

Simon woke up the next morning with the same disorientated memory as the night before. It took him a while to have the memories rush in—of him waking up in the middle of the street, of the girl there, of the flimsy explanation for why he had come back. He lay there, cozy in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to soak it all in. Finally he decided it was best that he had come back for he couldn't remember the last time his bed had felt so comfortable. He had wanted to come back and now he was.

He smiled at the ceiling. Welcome home.

He glanced at the clock. It was around 8 AM. He was late for work. He thought about it for a few moments. After the trauma he had been through, should he go to work? He looked around his room. It was probably best if he pretended nothing happened and kept himself busy. If he stayed inside, stayed in his home to rest and to analyze what had happened, he would probably go insane from worrying about going insane.

So that's decided. He was going to go right back to work after a traumatic experience.

But first, Simon thought as he set the alarm on his clock, it would be nice to sleep for another half hour.

Simon parked his car in his usual spot in the parking lot behind Wells Espress Coffee. He locked the car then walked into Wells Espress. It felt like forever since he had coffee. Mrs. Montgomery looked up as he came up.

"OH, it's you," she said in a sarcastic, snarky voice. "For a moment there, I thought you weren't going to come today."

"I needed coffee."

"Of course you did," Mrs. Montgomery sighed. "The usual?"

Simon nodded, and then went to sit at his usual table while he waited for his coffee. He stared out into the cold Maine street. It felt so nice to be back. He felt like he was enjoying a lazy Sunday. It was the best feeling ever in Simon's opinion.

He was glad to have his curiosity satisfied, glad to have had the luck to actually return in one piece. The palace door was an adventure he could not have imagined could have been remotely possible. It was great, but like any long vacation, the feeling of returning home was also quite happy, quite incomparable to anything the door offered.

Mrs. Montgomery came with his coffee and he sipped at it, still sitting. He was going to have a very relaxed working day today. He deserved it after all he had been through.

He sipped at the bitter drink, savoring it. Mrs. Montgomery's coffee actually wasn't too bad—and after going weeks without coffee, it was most welcome.

Once he had finished his coffee, he got up and walked a few stores down to open the Booktique for the day. It was now 10:11 a.m. almost two hours after his usual opening time. But he had a right, a goddamn good excuse, for not opening earlier and doing his job right.

He cleaned up a little, dusting the shelves a little, and then sat down by the cashier with his daily newspaper to wait while customers came in.

He had five customers in total that day. Three high school students—but not the high school girl he wanted to see—who had come in to buy books for their English literature classes. Then came Ms. Finch as always for her trashy romance novels. She did not attempt to make much conversation this time, which Simon was eternally grateful for, probably because she still remembered the last time she had tried to talk to Simon. Then there was Mrs. Montgomery, who came in, truly a rather surprising occurrence. Simon wondered what she could possibly want. It was clear to Simon that Mrs. Montgomery harbored a very strong hate towards Simon so it didn't make sense to him that she should come into his shop. Mrs. Montgomery muttered something about her niece coming to town and bought a simple edition of Pride & Prejudice for her niece, bought it, and left, all in the span of five minutes. This was fine to Simon that she left so early—he was so surprised by her presence that he barely has any snarky comment to say to her.