In the following days Will couldn't stop thinking about his sudden encounter with the girl from the bookstore. He reviewed countless times the words they had exchanged, and the image of him in the middle of the shop, soaked to the bone, looking dumb and stuttering would not leave his mind. He wondered about how she must have thought he was strange and awkward, and that bothered him more than usual.
All that was left was for him to read the books he had brought out of impulse, the four books about dragons and he didn't even liked dragons. The stories, however were very exciting, more than he expected and he finished them in only a few days. Surprisingly enough he was able to sleep again but still it was a turbulent sleep, full of terrible dreams that woke him abruptly. Hannibal starred in all of them. However he could not help but to feel grateful, it was always better to sleep poorly than to not sleep at all.
After several days without being able to shake the girl from his thoughts Will decided to go back to the store, on the pretext of knowing if Julia was feeling better and hooping to redeem himself for his sorry figure before.
When he got to the shop it was not empty. A couple looked through the shelves and an old lady with a boy were at the counter paying for several colorful books. The girl was behind the counter, looking happy and relaxed, and did not see him coming in. He was caught off guard again, he thought that the store would be empty and that he would be able to talk to her at will, he was then obligated to throw away his prepared speech, he would have to improvise (something he hated doing, especially in situations involving socialization).
While he was engaged in his thoughts more people came inside, he was then forced to get inside as well and look through the shelves. From the corner of his eye he observed the girl who seemed quite lively and friendly to everyone.
His frustration grew back again. "Why in hell is she treating everyone so nicely when she treated me with such disregard? She's nothing like her grandmother, certainly she didn't grow up with her." He thought imagining the way she must have seen him the day the met. "She saw in me someone naïve and defenseless, clumsy, without any idea of how to talk to people. She looked at me with haughty condescension." He continued to think felling that all that affected him more than it should. He started to feel like an idiot for being there waiting to be able to talk with someone who despised him, so he went to the door to leave.
"Are you looking for more books about dragons?" Will turned around and saw the girl looking at him with amusement, he decided to ignore the sarcastic comment.
"I came to know about your grandmother, is she feeling better?" He asked seriously.
"Yes, she is better. But still can't leave the house. By the way, I gave her your message, she thanked and asked me to give you this." She held a small package in his direction and Will grabbed it with curiosity. "If you don't need anything else I'll go take care of the costumers." She said smiling briefly to then abandon him.
"Costumers?" he thought. "What am I then? She just spoke to me to give me her grandmother's package. She thinks badly of me, and specially despites the informality of my relation with her grandmother."
He looked at her before leaving, she was quite beautiful, her gestures were spontaneous and her smile genuine. He just could not understand why she treated him so coldly, only him. He did not stay to know and left the store with a package under his arm and no books.
He still had one hour before his next class and so decided to go up to the city's garden and sit on a bench for a while. He placed the package on his knees and unwrapped the green paper that enveloped it. Inside there was a small book and a small bag with lemon cookies. Will ate a cookie while he picked the book, it was very small and old, so much that the cover letters were impossible to read. Inside the book there was a note from Julia, advising him to read it, but because it was a special book to her he should return it to the bookstore as soon as he finished it.
After dinner he sat on his couch to initiate his ritual. He took Julia's book and started reading it. The story was different, it talked about a king that lived on a faraway land a long time ago, this king was known to be very arrogant and greedy. In one summer's night, while looking at the sky, the king saw a princess that lived in heaven, white and pure, the king fell in love immediately. He started to wait for her every night, he declaimed poetry and promised her all the riches of the world. The princess tried to reach him, as she was starting to fall for him as well, but they lived so far away from each other they could never touch. The king fell in despair for not having his loved one just for him, and in great rage against fate he commanded a tower to be built so that he could reach the skies. Many years passed and many died in the construction of this tower, but the king could never get to his love. He fell ill with grief, and from his bed he looked the skies contemplating his princess up high. By losing all his strength and all his power the king became more humble and his heart purer and wiser. Then one day he woke up in heaven, next to his princess. "What happened?" he asked, to which the princess replied "All you had to do was drop everything that held to the shadows for I'm light and pureness, you could only reach me by renouncing darkness, that is why you are here now, because you've made peace with the world and have accepted light to touch your heart ."
That night Will dreamed of his mother in the kitchen baking pies, he remembers felling the perfume of oranges.