A Book She Had Already Read · What the Rain Kept · Pulse Beat
She put the book on the counter. It was a battered copy of The God of Small Things, spine cracked, underlined in three colours. "I'd like to return this." "We don't do returns," Ishaan said gently…
She put the book on the counter. It was a battered copy of The God of Small Things, spine cracked, underlined in three colours.
"I'd like to return this."
"We don't do returns," Ishaan said gently. "It's a used shop."
"I know. I bought it here last year." She turned it over. "I've read it three times. I want someone else to have it."
"That's generous."
"It's not generous. It's selfish. I want to know where it goes." She slid it toward him. "Will you tell me who buys it?"
He had been in the trade eleven years and nobody had ever asked that. "I'll keep it behind the counter," he said, "until someone looks like they need it."
"How will you know?"
"The way they pick it up. Some people lift a book like they're checking a fruit. Some lift it like they're afraid to wake it."
She looked at him properly for the first time, with eyes the colour of the water in the lane. "I'm Tara," she said.