the book shop > j.l < MID EDIT

one

Saturday 4th July  1959

Penelope

she did this rather often. staying after hours at Benny's Book Shop to browse the new instalments to the art and photography collections, it became a routine for her. every saturday at 10am there would be a delivery of around 30 books in which her uncle Benny expected her to sort through and organise before the day ended - which wasn't a big job at all, except she always got carried away intrigued by the different kinds of books she would come across. this led to many disputes with her uncle, the last dispute being only 4 weeks ago concluding in an agreement between the pair stating that Penelope could stay in the shop until after hours and browse as many of the books as she wanted as long as she worked overtime whenever Benny pleased. and that's exactly what she were doing on this night.

she sat in one of the armchairs in the far corner of the small shop surrounded by piles of different books. her favourite kind of course being the photography books but she often swayed to the fiction genre every now and again. her favourite book so far being Romeo and Juliet of course. typical right? there was something about the forbidden romance that always fascinated her - you should never stand in the way of love darling, it'll set you free - her late mother's words rung rings around her head whenever she thought about love.

Penelope was inexperienced to say the least, she was an eighteen year old girl lacking the excitement of romance in her life. but she never looked for it. she actually got a lot of male attention, but it wasn't what she wanted. she wanted the cliche love story but despite her fantasies she knew things aren't like that in real life. but she held hope.

hope was a big part of her life, the only thing that kept her positive. she had only one remaining family member and only a handful of friends, she tried to be content with her life. but it was lacking everything she wanted. she wanted adventure and excitement, true happiness. but for now all she had was this safe haven surrounded by worlds she could only dream to bring to life.

opening a fresh copy of Wuthering Heights she began reading the book that she'd been meaning to read for months since her best friend Lottie recommended it. however, just as she began to really get into the story the chime of the bell at the front of the shop rung indicating a customer.

she swore inwardly scolding herself for forgetting to flip the closed sign over, standing up off the green armchair she pulled her orange and black skirt down to not reveal as much of her thigh and pulling the sleeves down to her black turtle neck, she walked round to the front of the store as a thick Liverpudlian accent rung out a light -

"hello?"