The Bookstore Episode

Part 2

One page after the other, we reached half point of the book. It was then that I realized that I had been reading the male character's lines and she, the lines of his counterpart. We had no track of time. We continued as if everything else ceased to exist. We finished the book a couple of hours later. Both of us had broad smiles on our faces as if that was the best time we had spent in our entire miserable lives. She felt like a part of me. "I have to go. I don't want to, but I have to." She said. She lifted herself up, and took a step back. I extended my hand to touch her, but she was gone, as if she was never there. I saw her disappear in thin air and resolve to nothing.

I still had the book in my hand. "Come on man, time to close the store down. Come back tomorrow." Atul, the guy who ran the store said and patted my back. Hey, did you see the girl sitting next to me the whole day?" I asked Atul with high hopes. "What girl? You sat here all day reading out parts of this book you're holding. You read a couple of lines and then stopped for a while. You did it again and again. Are you okay? You had me worrying man!" Atul asked with concern. "What? Was I reading by myself? The whole day? You saw that? Why didn't you stop me?" I threw a lot of questions at him. "You seemed to enjoy it. You were happy, which you've not been too much lately. So I let you be." He said in simple enough words for me to understand that all the time I was in here, I saw things, I imagined them, I imagined her and it was the best time I had. I thanked Atul. I returned home, to my bed, thinking about her. As soon as I placed my head on the pillow, I slept like a baby.

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-Preet Shah