When you’re faced with doing basically nothing for days and days on end it becomes really easy to get back into things you might’ve left behind. Like writing! I’ve been attempting to write a lit bit every other day just so I can somehow manage to still keep myself relevant to it – and this here is my attempt at something.
“Is this one good?”. Holly looks up from where she’s squatting on the floor to see someone wrapped in a big red sweater holding three books in her hand one hand and flipping a fourth book in the other. Holly squints to look at the title of the book before she gets up.
“It’s a good one. I enjoyed it a lot.”. Big red sweater nods and places the book along with the three she’s already chosen. Holly gets up and dusts of the little specks of glitter that have settled on her palm from all the decorations she’s been putting up for the last half hour.
“You’ve chosen some great titles.” “You’ve read these?”
Holly nods,“All except that one.”, she says pointing at the red paperback, “It’s been on my list for a long, long time now. Haven’t found anyone ready to gift it to me yet.”, Holly chuckles. Big red sweater turns the books over in her hands and looks up at Holly, “I’m Abigail.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Abigail. Thanks for giving us business. I’ve seen you around many times.”, Holly says without thinking. In a second she realises maybe that was a creepy thing to say. Who tells a customer they’ve seen them around a lot? “Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean it in a creepy way. It’s just that I work here and I see you and okay I’m going to leave you alone now.”
Holly turns around to leave but stops when she hears a soft laugh from Abigail. She turns around with raised eyebrows. “Well, it’s true. I do come here a lot. I love it here. Who wouldn’t?”
As Abigail laughs, her big red sweater jingles and Holly notices small Christmas ornaments hanging from the edge of the sleeves. Holly looks at Abigail fully. She’s dressed in faded light blue jeans and wearing huge boots along with them. The black boots are decorated with small white snowflakes all over. The big red sweater isn’t just a regular sweater. It has a Rudolf’s huge red nose smack in the middle and jingles every time Abigail moves her arms an inch. Holly smiles softly thinking about how Abigail fits perfectly in this corner of the store. Abigail’s back faces a huge Christmas tree made out of green hardbound books (it was Remi’s idea to make one out of books this year) and the shelves that Abigail faces towards are all covered with bite-sized wreaths, mini snowmen and glitter-adorned Christmas ornaments. Tiny green, red and gold Christmas trees hang from the ceiling above (that one was Holly’s idea and she’s crazy proud of it too). And Abigail fits all too nicely into this corner.
“Thank you for helping me choose. I’d better get going, I have a long evening ahead. Great job on the decorations.”