Book Store

short short story

Maybe she is 50, and maybe the woman she is with is 80, as they walk up to me in the fishbowl in the center of one of the last remaining Barnes and Noble in New York. The 50ish opens asking where to find a book she doesn’t want to read, I look at the image on the phone and begin to direct them to the book. As we walk the elder tells her that that is not a way to start a question and the younger defends herself, stating that she is only getting this book because she needs to read it before class starts, but there were so many other books that she wanted to read with her students, and I find them the book. They go on their way, and I watch I the 50ish pointing to books everywhere explaining to the elder (who I now know as her mother) why she loved or hated all these books. Before they left, I saw them ask my coworker where to find the large print books, and she led them in an embarrassing fashion to the two small shelves in the section in the giant store, but it was enough.

Reviews

[Rachid Amrani]

A very short story, yet it conveys some of the aspects of daily life interactions between patrons and bookstore clerks. You incorporated a unique situation in your plot by having an elderly customer asking where to find a book that she would not read. This strange request of course evoked mixed reactions in the clerk and also other customers (if I understood it correctly) and that is good because it advances the story.
Having said that, the story could be extended by using more dialogue and a little bit more about setting (the bookstore) and then at last you can surprise us with a resolution to what has transpired in the story.
Overall, you did a great job keeping me hooked to the story until the end.
Onward