T is for Translating and Titles

Shannon cleaned up the tea, restocking the water from the sink left behind in her old kitchen which had been repurposed as her store entry. While she did that, several more regulars came in and went out. The interruptions of ringing up the outgoing sales, and one purchase of incoming books, extended the cleanup effort, but she refused to give up the task even with exhaustion nibbling at her body. Some of her visitors needed a break from the outside more than books, and she wanted to make sure that the safe space was available for immediate use. It was pushing an hour before Borys rung the bell.

Making her way to the fantasy and science-fiction room, she found he had managed a complete aisle alone. His skills were increasing all the time. Though many of the words escaped him, he knew the alphabet and the sorting rules. As a used bookstore, she didn’t really care if the books were alphabetical by author name or book title or a mixture of the two. So long as there was some semblance of order and the shelves were neat, her customers could find what they wanted. The young man gave her the five books which had stumped his present skill set.

“This is great, Borys.” Shannon went through them. “Three romances in the wrong area. Good eye!” She placed these on her lap, then studied the other two. “This one is Japanese magna. We just added a shelf in the back of the Fantasy room for it. I’ll show you where to put it. And as for this last book, oh yuk, a symbol instead of words. What is this, the author formally-known-as Prince? Let’s open up to the title page and see if that helps. Ah, what is this word here?” She asked, as she walked him through her problem-solving method again. Each time he got a little more. He used to not be able to distinguish between styles of books for sorting, now she rarely found books out of genre when she went through her store after one of Borys’s visit.

“The.”

Shannon moved her finger, and he read each word.

“Lost. Fire. of. Kil … no … Civil-zay-ton.”

“The Lost Fire of Civilization.” Shannon repeated. “And no author name. If you can’t find the name on the cover of the book, sometimes the title page can fill in the blank.” She handed him back the book to put away on his own, which he quickly did, reaching the top shelf easily.

Moving further back in the room, shoving one box to the side with her good foot to get the scooter through, she showed him where the magna went. Borys frowned at the books on the shelf. Colorful pictures but the words were wrong.

“For this section, just put the books on the shelves neatly. Not all of them are in English. You remember the Spanish section?”

Borys nodded, still staring at the offending books. Meanwhile, the entrance bell chimed.

“This is like that. People speak different languages and have different alphabets. Everyone should have something to read, so I have a section for them. Just keep it straight and neat, like they are important too. People who are not like everyone else like it when people treat their stuff nice.”

“I like it too. I like to be treated nice.”

“Yes. And so do I,” Shannon said, reversing her scooter before returning to the front to see who just came in.

Borys stood in front of the manga section a long time before moving to straighten it up.

The End

 

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This story (Bookstore Sort) is dedicated to my middle school ice cream (and milk) lady who let a child on the spectrum, back before the spectrum was a thing, keep the milk straight and neat every day during the lunch hour instead of being forced to sit with kids she couldn’t figure out how to talk to or go out to the playground to be bullied. You let me put things in order by date, sort the milks by flavor and percentage, and keep them all square. You let me stand beside the milk area and talk to you day after day. Your small kindness made me feel useful and valued. Thank you for the Christmas gift of a red knitted hat with matching scarf and for being my friend, even though you were an adult and I was twelve. I will always remember you, even if I never learned your name.

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A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)
Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)

Bookstore Sort (R to T)
4/20/2019 – R is for Ring
4/22/2019 – S is for Seuss
4/23/2019 – T is for Translating and Titles

Next: Panic at the Convention