A tinkling bell noise sounded as she crossed the threshold into the familiar store. The wooden ‘open’ sign swung back and forth, even after she was into the shop and making her way towards the front desk. A plaque on the oaken surface told her that the man’s name, although she already knew it, was Mr. Clark, clerk of ‘Booked,’ her favorite second hand book store. The entire place smelled of old books, yellowed pages, and days spent happily curled in a corner with a cup of hot chocolate and her latest 3-dollar purchase.

“Welcome back, Nora!” Mr. Clark was getting old, his spine starting to curve inwards like a weeping willow tree. His face looked almost like the books he had committed the last 20 years of his life to; the skin turning a pale, translucent yellow with the occasional spot of age speckling it. Still, his blue eyes had never lost the twinkle to it that had certainly drawn her to this shop above the others in the city. There were hundreds of options; it was New York, after all.

She smiled shyly, inhaling the atmosphere of the shop. This was her childhood, her favorite part of every weekend. “Hi, Mr. Clark.” Her voice was much older, at 17 now, than it had been when she had first stumbled into this shop, holding her mother’s hand and trying not to be seen. Nowadays, she came by herself. Though she’d never say so, she knew that her mother couldn’t be bothered to do the small things with her any more. Work took too much, she was always so tired.


“What can I get you for?” He asked, his smile wry and young.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Nora said, looking around distractedly. “I think I’m just going to look for a while.”

“Well, feel free to peruse for as long as you like. Pick any book- on the house today.” His kind old smile widened to show yellowing teeth. “Just stay away from the romance section. I know how you lot tend to like your Twilight these days.”

She rolled her eyes, making her way across the plush carpet towards the oldest books, and disappeared around a corner. A small green book with a gold spine was lying open on the ground, the results of someone in a hurry to leave, or simply some idiot who couldn’t figure out how to put it back on the shelve. Where did it go? Part of the reason he was letting her take a book today was because she was an honorary worker- she came in every day and cleaned up, and sometimes he would let her take something home for free. Nora liked being paid in books; the old ones were much more valuable than anything that they could pay her money wise.

Flipping it open, she glanced inside the cover of the book. A small note was scrawled inside the cover in pencil, the handwriting almost illegible. She could just make out the scribbles, a full paragraph. It read:
To whomever this may find, I wish the best. ‘Booked’ has been my favorite shop for years. It’s a place of warm memories, happy ones, for me. Unfortunately, this is my last visit here, and I won’t be able to come back. This book was the first one I ever bought from this store, and the only one I’ve ever left here. What goes around comes around, right? The chemo’s taking up too much of my energy apparently, and the doctors say that I have to be permanently hospitalized. So for someone else, I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I did.

Nora blinked before glancing towards the first page, the crinkled page turning easily. This was a well-loved book, it was easy to tell.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” she muttered out loud, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen between the towering bookshelves. The girl clasped the book shut gently, taking care not to rip any of it.

The front counter loomed again, and she placed the book down on the oak lightly.

“This one, please.” She left the shop blinking quickly, trying to get the tears to leave her eyes. He had warned her about the romance section. Gripping the book a little tighter in her hands, she walked faster along the crowded roads. Nora, despite all of this, found herself smiling slightly. Now it was too late.