Unlocking the Key to My Memories

[Chapter 2]

He's dead to me. Oh gracious lord. Forrest--Forrest Twinge? My job is in jeopardy. Oh crap, oh crap... I didn't have the slightest clue that his dad was the boss of the library. That little bastard! I don't care how attractive he is! I'm going to rip his head off the next time he turns in his book. Wait...why would he need to check out books if his dad owns the whole building? I'm starting to have a huge headache.

It's been two days since my encounter with that boy. When a person comes inside, a bell clanks alive and I jump up from my corner and look from left to right, thinking he's there with his goofy smile and his book in his arms. Why am I even thinking about this?! I need to get him out of my head.

So here I am with my back against a bookshelf in the corner the customers always find me in. My book is in my lap once again and my eyes just graze the words on the page. The words just aren't processing in my head.

Alice smiles and points to her heart. "This is where you belong, mommy."

I try to avoid that sentence from the book as hard as I can, but my eyes seem to be beyond my control because I can find myself flipping the pages and my gazes lingering over that line over and over again. I try to avoid it mainly because I don't realize until later that tears run down my cheeks. I don't even feel them nor feel any sort of sadness until I have a feeling to touch my cheek. Seriously, I don't know what comes over me. It's always that certain sentence that makes my kness buckle and my shoulders shake. I guess there are just certain things in this world that are left unsolved.

This time, I close the book and just stare at the ceiling. My fingertips glaze over the golden lettering on the surface--Small Delightful Smiles. This is the first and only copy made by the world-wide known author, A.A. Legend. This town praises that author with a passion. Sadly, A.A. Legend was brutally murder and all her beautiful creations left along with her. You see, the town's former Mayor, Mr. Falls, declared the only way to morn for the author was to leave her books behind and bury them with his daughter. Truth is, Mr. Falls just couldn't live with the only memory of his daughter drifting along through the whole town. His crumbling heart couldn't take all the agony that life had to offer.

Mr. Falls came to my house one day five years after A.A. Legend's death. He and my dad had a couple of drinks together in the past and they became friends. He had a dusty looking green book in his hands. He said that this was the book A.A. Legend just finished before she passed on and thought I should have it. I gladly accepted it mainly because I heard a bunch of rumors about this lady. Little did I know that nobody in town had any of her works. The next day, Mr. Falls was reported to hanging himself off the ceiling fan and a note in his hands saying in chicken scratch lettering, "SRRY ANGEL". To this day, I have no idea why Mr. Falls gave me Small Delightful Smiles.

"Heeeeey, earth to Videlle!" Barbiie yelled, waving her hands across my face.

"Huh?" I ask. I guess I got too caught up in ancient history.

"I want you to meet my new boyfriend, Darien. I brought him here because he said this is his favorite library," She says, moving to the side to reveal a man around his mid 20s smiling down at me. He had almond brown eyes and auburn hair. He has a gruff shaggy beard growing along his jaw. His muscles poked out from underneath his white button up shirt and his dazzling white teeth marked him perfect. To be honest, her new boyfriend was a pretty great sight to see.

But Barbiie never got a guy her own age. Since she turned eighteen five months ago, she no longer had the desire to go for "immature guys" as she states it. To let you in on a secret and I swear, I'll deny it if you tell anybody--but she's always had the hots for older men. Rich 40 year olds are her limit. I once witnessed her locking lips with a judge who looked over 30 and already had hair missing from the back of his head at the back of some bakery store. I was walking to work in a short cut, and I was scarred for life when I saw the judge move his tongue in her mouth and his hands drift below her waist. Barbiie smiled, and her hands lingered to his pockets and slowly removed his wallet. To this day, I have my doubts that she even knows I was there. Barbiie was only 16 when that happened. She's told me she lost her v-card when she turned 15 to a senior as a birthday present. I blame her parents.