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Time has slipped from Jessie's fingers. Between finding out she was now a fighter of justice and all things right and good in the world and working in the store she forgot to do the Easter egg hunt. It wasn't the end of the world especially since one of the nearby neighborhoods hosted it in their park, but it still irritated her that she forgot to do it. She remembered promising her parents that she would be more active in the neighborhood, go out and meet more people her age, make new friends.... get the hell out of the store. But Jessie didn't like crowds, parties were inevitably too loud, and other than books she didn't have much she could talk about. Her mother was so happy for her when Jessie told her about the plan to hold a egg hunt and now she would be disappointed that it never happened and Jessie can't even explain it was because she was so tired adjusting to being a nightly superhero. Sometimes Jessie wondered if her parents pushed her to go meet people because they wanted to see her have a family of her own.... then again her parents knew that unless pushed Jessie would not likely leave her literary filled world by herself.

Jessie sighed and couldn't help but mentally ask if her parents would approve if they ever found out about her night. She snickered out loud at the imagined faces of her mother and her father's caution to 'stay safe'. She kept up the mental arguments and discussion with them as she wondered the stacks of the store, shelving misplaced material as well as pulling various books out for requests and her own use.

Jessie was so absorbed in her 'conversation' that she hadn't heard the bell over the door ring or the customer approach but she did hear him ask a question right beside her. With a squeak of surprise her arm full of books went tumbling to the ground. Comic, history, space, and myth books were mixed in with the cookbooks, gardening books, and mechanical books as they lay spread out on the ground.

"Oh dear. Sorry, sorry about that." She bent down to gather the books, apologizing as she grabbed each book. "I didn't know there was anyone else here. I'll just get these up and show you the kids section. Is there anything in particular you're looking for?" She hoped he wouldn't ask about the wide variety of books since she really didn't know how to explain away her selections. To the logical mind history and space don't coincide with comics and myths but when you have become a member of myths with ties to space learning your history and figuring out how to be a hero is rather important.

Jessie smiled brightly. "Well we defiantly have plenty of books for that age group, both classics and new. If you will follow me real fast I'll show you." The children's section was one of the few areas that she would spend most of her time in if she could. It was 'fun and fancy free' with all the colors and toys. It didn't take her long at all to drop her stack of books off at the front counter and head back towards the brightly lit kids corner. With the two bay windows there was plenty of light to splash across the colorful rugs, highlight the fairy wind chimes hanging in the windows, and revel the toys on the shelves acting as bookends.... and on the floor where the kids had gotten into them. This had been one of the first areas that she had decorated once her parents handed the store over to her officially and she still enjoyed puttering around in it adding more things, changing others.

"Here we are. Everything from picture books to more advanced reading." Jessie gestured to all the books. "Now for a four year old you cant go wrong with books from Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, or Laura Numeroff. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is always popular." Jessie bent down and quickly pulled the book from the short bookcase that had most of the books for the younger people that wander her store. "The Giving Tree is also a classic along with Where the Wild Things Are. But if you want to go more modern or books more geared towards little boys Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, which is like the classic Goodnight Moon or Lets Do Nothing, which I personally find rather amusing." Jessie added her own commentary as she remained kneeling on the floor pulling out each book in turn.

She smiled up at her customer, her hazel eyes practicably flashing in pleasure as her mind went from book to book, author to author, and plot to plot. Many which would work for this man's young son but no point in selecting all of them. A choice few would be best to go with. "Now we do also have a few 'activity and learning' books if you would rather go with something like that. We have books like What's Out There?: A Book about Space which covers space but in a child friendly manner. The reading railroad books are a pretty good group of books that are educational as well as entertaining. Or if you would rather be a bit more hands on we have activity books like The Never-Bored Kid Book, this is the four to five year old but we do have the older age group too for later if you want." Jessie pointed to the others on the shelf. "Or a connect the dot book for those fine motor skills, 1-25 Dot-to-Dot. The, A Get Ready! series covers a lot of things for school like letters and numbers. Its very educational and the kids seem to like them." Jessie finally wound down fairly sure that she covered the general bases for a four year old when she looked down and realized that she had over a half a dozen books in her lap, granted none of them were terribly thick and all together they were maybe the same thickness of some of the large adult books but there was no way this guy would want to buy his son this many books. One or two was the norm for birthdays and the like but eight? Only for the bookworms like her.

"Oh, um, sorry it seems I went a bit over board." She got to her feet and held out the stack. "There just suggestions. I would recommend flipping through them and picking books that you think your son would like."

“That’s a good one,” Jessie smiled and took it from the gentleman while making a mental not to straighten the kids’ area since she could see books put back wrong and the toys needed picking up; all things to be done later. “It’s sweet that you want to share your favorite book with your son. It’s a good way to start a tradition.” Jessie still had a few books that were her mother’s favorites. Goodnight Moon had a place of honor on her bookshelf along with a old copy of Dante’s Inferno and a collection of Grimm Brother’s original tales.

“Oh? You’re going on a trip? We have quite a few books about various places if you need travel guides. We also carry translation dictionaries too if you are going somewhere that requires at least rudimentary understanding of the language.” It didn’t occur to her that maybe this stranger was talking about a different type of ‘gone’.

Jessie blushed deeply at the man’s laughter; at least he didn’t seem to take offense to her presumptions. “Tag Swagger?” She took a longer, assessing look at him. The blond hair and blue eyes were semi-familiar but she likely wouldn’t have pegged him as a TV personality unless told. “Oh. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve caught your show once or twice. You look different on TV, I guess it’s the lighting and set and everything.” She shrugged and introduced herself, “I’m Jessie Haze. Unlike you I’m no one special.” Her smile showed that it was meant as a joke even if some could say that she was now very special since she was a ‘super hero’. Her smile faded quickly with that though, she still found herself uncomfortable with that thought although she was coming to terms with it… slowly.

Jessie decided to focus on the conversation and mentally deal with her extracurricular activities later when she was alone. “Hum… Well since you only get to see your son occasional then you should do things that are memorable. Books are good since they will remind him of you when you aren’t there but try going to the zoo or play in the park. There are some really great museums.” She paused and thought for a moment, “Although I’m not sure if there are any young children friendly museums.” Jessie almost mentioned The Mall that was in D.C. but since Tag mentioned how busy he was she didn’t think he would be willing to take such a long trip with his young son, maybe when his son was older it would be more feasible.

Jessie just smiled softly and walked back through the store with him. There was no point in arguing the definition of special when in reference to a person since it is all subjective. After all to a mother her child is special while to others the child might just be normal; cute, funny, smart, but normal for a child. But when it came to comparing someone like her, the bookworm owner of a bookstore to Tag, a TV personality there was no real competition. But what about a superhero verses a TV personality? the dark part of her mind asked that she quickly shushed, unable to deal with her ‘split personality’ right that minute.

“Beer? For a four year old?” And then she got the joke and added, “wouldn’t wine be more appropriate?” It was a bad save and came across as such. Sometimes jokes just went over Jessie’s head while other times she got them but didn’t really know how to respond to them. Doing her best to cover her slip she quickly rang the book up. “9.40 After tax.” Jessie then caught sight of smallish stuffed rabbit that was part of her Easter display hiding in the box she had tossed it in after getting the willies from it. She didn’t think anyone could blame her for getting the willies from it after she had been attacked by them, starting this whole madness that she now called her life. Jessie grabbed the cream and white creature and placed it with the book. “For your son’s birthday, on the house.”

Jessie smiled and handed back his change. She was glad that he didn't mention her slip at his joke and was even happier when he took the plush along with him. Jessie had a feeling that she wouldn't want a pet rabbit anytime soon... or a stuffed one either. "Your welcome and I hope he likes the book. Come back soon." She waved as she watched Tag head out the door and started to sort the stack of books that she left on the counter.

-Fin-