Chapter eleven
CAMILA
I fed Waffle, changed his water, cleaned his litter box, and left the house. My grandmother’s bookstore was on the same street as our building, so I got there in less than five minutes.
As soon as I entered, I found, as was becoming customary, the place empty, which always filled me with sadness.
I had fond memories of my childhood in that place.
I loved going there after school and sitting in a corner on the carpet, reading a children's book, while watching people come and go.
All kinds of people. Men and women returning from work, elderly people alone, or as a couple or with their children or grandchildren, teenagers looking for fantasy books, romance novels or biographies of their favorite artists.
People of all kinds, looking for books of all kinds.
I didn't even understand why, but I simply loved it.
It was like being in a separate universe, where, by immersing myself in my reading, I became a princess, heroine, witch, fairy, or anything I could dream of being.
And, when I got distracted from my reading to look around me, I saw other people also diving into other worlds as they leafed through the titles.
Becoming rock stars, young women living beautiful love stories, medieval knights.
.. traveling through different places and times.
It wasn't that the magic of reading was fading, but it didn't seem to happen as often here anymore.
In the digital age, people were buying their books online and were losing the habit of going to places like that.
And I understood that perfectly. The place had stopped in time, but I was sure that new attractions could bring the public back.
But that’d be difficult with the limited space we had there.
I walked to the cashier's counter, where I found my grandmother practically hidden, with her head down and her eyes fixed on papers and more scribbled papers.
“Is there a problem, grandma?” I asked.
She jumped, taken aback by my voice, and began to gather the papers, looking at me and smiling.
“No, dear. Nothing much. I was just checking the bills.”
“Checking the bills is always much.”
She sighed and declared in a defeated tone. “Electricity prices went up a lot this month, and sales were well below the standard, which is already low. I'm going to have to dip into my savings to pay off this month's bills.”
“You can't touch your savings, grandma. We're saving up to buy the land next door.”
“Oh, dear... it's no use anymore, we won't be able to do it. I met the owner of the land out front earlier today. Apparently, a couple interested in buying it came to see the place, and... he said they're quite willing to close the deal. They only asked for a few days for the final response.”
I heard a tone of tears in my grandmother's voice as she gave me the news. And that made a wave of despair take over me.
“He can't sell to someone else, grandma. What if we match the offer?”
“How, Cami? We still haven't gotten even a third of the amount he's asking for the land. And he's already made it clear that he'll only sell it for cash.”
“But we can't give up, grandma. If we continue like this, we'll end up having to close our doors.”
I had barely finished saying those words and I already felt terribly regretful when I saw the first tear running down my grandmother's face.
Nothing in this world could tear me apart more than seeing my grandmother crying.
And she knew it. So much so that she quickly forced a smile, at the same time she got up from her chair and ran her hands over her face, drying her tears.
“We'll figure it out, my love. I need to go to the bathroom to wash my face. Some new books arrived; can you help me log them?”
Without waiting for an answer – even because it was clearly a question just to avoid the previous subject – she entered the store's storage room, where our small bathroom was, and closed the door.
I sat down in the chair where she had been before, still feeling the strong pain in my chest from seeing our only chance of reviving that bookstore go down the drain.
That place had been so special to my mother... and it was still so special to my grandmother. I felt it was my duty to take care of everything there and keep the bookstore from closing its doors.
But what could I do? The only solution would be to get, in a few days, enough money to cover the offer for the land next door.
It was ironic that I knew exactly where to get that.
There was still the risk that I would be arrested for lying to a judge.
But that would only happen if someone found out.
And, for my grandmother — for the bookstore that was the reason for her life — this risk would be worth it.