The Perfect Mary Sue
Library
He had watched her from the beginning of the summer, a mouse hidden in a corner. Nibbling, typing, dreaming, she was easy to pass over like his shop.
There were fifteen libraries in town: the public library, the local bookstore chain (yes, he did count that one), the seven elementary libraries (one for each school), two junior high libraries, two high school libraries, one college library and then there was his shop. Found in an obscure section in one of the town's many obscure little cul-de-sacs, his bookstore was easily forgotten and remarkably easy to lose, like a missing sock or a dropped copper penny. Only the select few could find it, the lucky ones drawn together by fact, chance and careful planning, maybe a mixture of each. Obscure, perfect and proud, this wasn't a problem. Its lost-ness was what made the little bookstore/coffee shop/internet café such a success. It was a treasure, the town's best kept secret, an illusion nestled beneath colors and patterns dizzy and messy yet soft and welcoming. It was more than a business. It was a home at least that is what his customers thought.
Oops wrong story. - Calla