Jessie surveyed her domain. Books, books, and more books, as far as Jessie could see. She smiled as she folded colorful origami swans. It was hard to believe that the open and airy bookstore was once an old Victorian. Her mother's heart desire was to create a home for books; to share the love and passion within each story with others. Her father had carefully gutted the ‘old gal’ her mother called the Victorian when they bought it 8 years ago. Some of Jessie’s fondest memories were of her helping her mother in the gardens that first summer as her father listened to classical as he restructured the shop. Now rather than each room leading into the other only the occasional hip high wall and load bearing pillars mark the old floor plan. The small kitchen and the main stairs was all that remained of the original structure on the first floor.

In theory Jessie could see from the front of the store to the back, if the bookcases weren’t in the way that is. But this didn’t bother her since the front counter was right by the front door, she could see everyone coming and going. As she finished a blue swan, placing it the box at her feet, one of her employees arrived. “Oh good Jackson, your here. I wanted to restock some of the fantasy section. Can you take care of the register for a bit?” When he young man nodded and made his way behind the counter Jessie headed towards the main stairs. The steps leading up were roped off but she wasn’t going up to her apartment, instead she was going down into the basement. Since the stairs leading up covered the stairs leading down she opened the door under the stairs and made her way down into the storage room.

The basement was filled with boxes of books. Stacks and towers and buildings of books. Jessie loved it. She knew exactly where everything was and it didn’t take her long to locate the box of best sellers, lug it up the stairs and into the fantasy section. After a moment of restocking the shelves Jessie sat back on her heels and studied the shelves and books around her. There was a red dragon sleeping on the shelf next to Tolkien, a toy submarine over by Jules Vern, a rainbow on the ceiling, and fairies in dancing in front of the windows. She tried to theme every section; chefs and pastries for cooking, plants by gardening, numbers by accounting, while paintings and brushes were by art. Jessie liked to think of her store as whimsical and entertaining all by itself. She smiled and flattened the now empty box which she added to the stack in the kitchen before heading back to the main counter.

“Jackson can you hand me the box of cranes?” When he handed her the box she smiled and laughed at his question filled face. “I love hiding these things around the shop. It amuses me when I see someone find them.” She smiled and started distributing the cranes by placing a red and white one on Jackson’s head. Her snickers followed behind as she disappeared into the stacks.

(Word Count: 537)