Just My Luck

13. ...

I sat at the check out desk completely bored, and drummed my fingers on the wood. Mme Dubois had requested that I let Théo file away books by himself so that he could learn about the different sections better because apparently I was oh so fast that by the time he finished his first cart, I had already filed away everything else. So he only really knew the art section of the library since that's what he always went to file first.

Fuko had once again disappeared to groom herself and whatnot, but she'd been gone for so long I was starting to get suspicious.

"Wrong aisle!" I yelled across the library at Théo. Normally, I kept my voice down, but there was nobody here but us, and there was no way I was about to let him accidentally place a science fiction book in the gardening section!

Théo's head peeked from behind a bookcase, "But the stickers are both green," he pointed to the book in his defense.

"Gardening uses Forest Green stickers, the book you have is Sea Green! It belongs with the other science fiction books!" I grumbled at him.

Théo looked at the book dubiously, then held it up to a gardening book to compare. "Oops!" he said, then he pushed the cart to the appropriate aisle.

"I would expect that at least an artist like you would spot the difference!" I told him.

"I'm a sculptor," he corrected me.

"Smart choice," I rolled my eyes at him and then pulled out a piece of paper to doodle on. Seriously, where is Fuko?! I found myself wondering when I had drawn a small mischievous little cat face.

I almost opened my mouth to ask Théo if he had seen a small black cat, but then I remembered she was invisible to everyone else.

Had I eaten too much for breakfast? It suddenly felt like my stomach was really full. I mean it happened sometimes that I only felt the weight of a meal around twenty-thirty minutes after, but breakfast wasn't usually a heavy meal. Just something small, light and fast to start the day. None of that egg nonsense other countries were obsessed with.

Oh-no..... I suddenly felt a cold pit in my stomach. Please don't tell me.... Had Fuko eaten something?!

Well, theoretically it would make sense... As a magical spirit she didn't need to eat. She only felt hunger when I was hungry, and as long as I made sure I wasn't hungry, she was fine. So it only made sense that if that was true, that if she ever ate anything, I would feel too full. Granted she'd eaten crumbs from time to time, but who had ever gotten full on those?!

As a personal rule since getting Fuko, I never carried food on me, and Mme Dubois also never brought food into the library... which meant...

"Théo, did you bring any food to the library?" I asked him as he was returning his cart.

"Uh yeah, I brought a ham sandwich, why?" Théo looked at me confused. He sniffed at the air, "Surely the smell isn't bothering you? I mean I can't smell anything..."

I stood up from the desk, "I have a bad feeling about this..." I went to the back room with Théo behind me.

"What do you mean?" Théo asked while I opened the door.

I had seen videos online when pet owners come home and their pets completely destroyed the house. This was worse. Papers were everywhere, stuck to the wall, the floor, and somehow even the ceiling. They were ripped and torn as if Fuko could smell the food but not figure out where it was until she had dug through all of them.

"My references!" Théo began collecting them frantically.

His bag had also been torn to shreds, and whatever form of containment that his sandwich had been in was in an unrecognizable form.