Gravity Heroes

Chapter 32

Mystery Shack Sunday November 18, 2012 2:25 PM

Kitchen

Stan, Gillian, and James are sitting at the kitchen table while Soos was at the counter making a fresh pot of coffee. There was a bit of silence as the two ex-spouses seemed to be trying to feel each other out. James was just sitting there drinking a Pitt Cola and looking bored.

"So," Stan finally said, "You're back in town, huh?"

"Yeah, I finally decided to pay a visit to the old town.", Gillian Ruperts said looking up into Stan's eyes. "Visit some old friends."

"Really? The last I remember you said you were never coming back here.", Stan said his face souring, "Something about an arrogant jerk ruining the place for you."

"Well time changes things," she said

Soos brought over three cups of coffee and sat down. Looking between the two he he finally asked, "So how'd the two of you meet?"

Stan rubbed his chin in thought before he started, "Well I had been running the Murder Hut for two years and I was trying to come up with new attractions..."

Flashback June 1984

Gravity Falls

"I'm telling you Mr. Pines, you need to get more stuff in here. People are gonna get tired of seeing the same stuff over and over," the 20 year old standing behind the newly built Gift Shop counter said talking to his boss.

"I know, Justin. I'm just running out of ideas right now.", Stanford Pines said as he took off his 'blood splattered' blue sports coat.

"Well you could always go to the Library to check out some books on legends and local history type stuff," Justin said as he flipped through the Gravity Falls Gossiper.

"You know I can't go back to the library ever since that incident with the librarian Beatrice," Stan said running his hand through his brown hair. "Who would have thought a thirty year old dame could have been a widow. If she had told me her husband had died in a mining accident I would have never made the splunking joke."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about your failed date with Miss Durham," Justin said hiding his smirk behind the newspaper as he remembered the red hand-print that was still on his boss's face the next morning when he came to work, "Well there's always Ruperts' Books and Novel-ties out on the edge of town."

"Oh, yeah. Never been in there. Books really aren't my cup of coffee," Stan said as he walked around marking up items from a dollar or two to three or four dollars. "what's this Rupert like?"

"Oh, you'll find you have some stuff in common," Justin replied putting down his paper and looking at the clock, "Well my shift's done and you don't pay overtime so I'm outta here."

He grabbed his blue and black leather jacket and putting on his head phones to listen to his 'Chiller' cassette on his Skipman. He was dancing the entire trip out of the shop to his Shawnee Merriville wagon. Stan turned the sign to closed and watched his only employee pull away.

Once Justin had pulled out of the lot, Stan started to pull out the bookcase he had set up to hide the door to his brother's laboratory before he stopped himself, "Well it can't hurt to go check out this bookshop."

After locking up he got into his trusty El Diablo and headed into town. He stopped at the Dusk2Dawn, grabbed a soda and a bag of chips for his dinner, and headed on down the road to the bookstore. Pulling up to the place he could tell it had a definite Mom & Pop type of feel to it. It was a brick building with a blue and green awning over the front of the building. The door had a bell hanging down in plain sight to let the employees know when someone entered. And Ruperts' Books and Novel-ties was painted in gold on the front window.