Chapter 4
The Puget Sound Book Company
101 South Main Street??Seattle, WA 98104
11/15/91
Dear Frida,
Paris sounds awesome divine. I totally admire you for following your dream. I’m pretty much trying to do that, too. My dad and I have a thing for bookstores like you and your dad, and when I was growing up he’d do these special daughter days for my little sis, Franny, and me. Every year we got to come to Seattle with him by ourselves for a Seahawks game. Before heading to the Kingdome we’d walk around Pioneer Square. We always visited this one little bookshop. I remember thinking how awesome incredible it would be to work there someday. The little bookshop grew up, and guess what? I’m working in it right now.
Not that it feels like work. I love it, especially when I manage to help a customer find what they want. A little while ago a man came up, and this is how he described the book he was looking for. “It has bright colors on the cover, and I think the word betrayal is in the title, or maybe not, but it’s about South Africa or maybe South America.” That’s why I spend so much time browsing covers and titles in different sections. This kind of thing happens a lot. It was my own private victory to figure out he wanted My Traitor’s Heart .
Confession: When I asked you about the moules marinières competition, I didn’t know what moules marinières were. I went up to Campagne (this French restaurant in Pike Place Market) to see if I could try them, and when asked about them, I was totally embarrassed. Moules are mussels. I should know that because (a) I took two years of French in high school and (b) Seattle serves more than its fair share of mussels. The restaurant was way too Thurston Howell the 3rd too lavish for an impoverished bookseller, so I walked down to Ivar’s and got my favorite fried clam strips and chips. I sat on the pier and watched the ferries glide out to the islands. People think it’s just rain and gray skies in Seattle, but we get these flawless days. The bay was dark blue satin, and whitecaps danced with silver sunlight. In the distance, the Olympic Mountains looked like glaciers floating in the sky. It was parfait, as you say.
I’ve been agonizing over your surprise. There are so many books to choose from, and what if I totally blow it? I finally picked Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. (It’s fiction. I hope you’re okay with that.) It’s so exceptional I gave myself a goal to hand-sell a hundred copies in a single month. Last month I sold eighty-nine. Now I’ve already sold sixty-eight and it’s only halfway through November. Selling you a copy gets me closer, but that’s not why I picked it. The main character, Claudia, is a war correspondent in Egypt during WWII, and the book is about how she reflects back on her life. I thought you’d like that. Plus it made my brain jitter. (My brain jitters a lot these days.) All those different points of view. I mean, who knew you could switch back and forth between first person and third person for the same character? Not me when I wrote my novel.
Sincerely,
Kate
P.S. How long did it take you to save up enough money to live in Paris?