Flash Fiction Challenge 2016 #1

Group 50

1000 words – Genre: Suspense Location: Used Bookstore Object: Passport

Falling Off A Cliff

At the bank, she looked right and left as she approached the ATM. A single woman living alone in the city must be alert to her surroundings at all times.

Everything of value she had left was in the small purse with the shoulder strap that she wore like a sash tautly wrapped across her upper body. It was a precautionary habit. A friend’s purse had been snatched in broad daylight on the same street in the blink of an eye.

She tucked the large cash withdrawal into envelope in her purse that contained her passport, a non-refundable plane ticket for home, a check for her last rent payment on the small studio apartment that had been her sanctuary for the last four years.

This last check and door key she would deliver to her landlord’s drop box Monday morning before she took the subway to the airport to catch her flight. Her father and brother had come and gone this morning with her possessions packed in a U-Haul hitched to the F-150.

The used bookstore off the alley behind the bank had no sign or numbered address. You had to discover it as a local and know it was there. It had random hours. Available selections were eclectic and change in stock was gradual and unpredictable.

She had found a few fictional treasures there during her time in the city. The store was her secret wishing well of magical solitude and though she had not planned to give it a last visit, the desire for a book made its location opportune.

A structural oddity cut into the middle of the back walls of an old church building. The doorway was a narrow opening into an elongated horseshoe floorplan that used every inch of space to display inventory. A long, deep, one-way meander with paperback and hardcover books on floor to ceiling racks arranged alphabetically by author.

Not for the claustrophobic, the place smelled dusty and musty and the uncirculated air felt thickly thin.

Entering the door, past the cashier seated on a stool behind a counter, a single file one-way walk down the left aisle went around in a U-shape to the right aisle which led back to the front door, which was the only exit.

There were never more than one or two customers in the store at a time.

Seeing another person inside upon entering, she had developed a common courtesy to back up and wait outside until the other person had exited.

She never had to wait long.

Like a public restroom. It was a place you visited for a short time, alone. A quick browse, in and out. On occasion, an impulse buy.

Chance Meetings was the title she was focused on.

“Do you believe in things like that?”

His voice was a low growl, lips close to her ear, almost a whisper. He had such a keen line on her gaze. She realized he had targeted the precise place her eyes were looking.

Startled to her core, she was amazed she did not shoot through the top of the bookstore roof like a rocket launched by the sensor of his unexpected presence.

Inexplicably, she felt calm and collected. She picked up a scent of Teaberry gum, the kind she used to search for in her grandfather’s flannel shirt pocket.

Coolly and without fear, she turned to look directly into a young man’s friendly face.

Azure blue smiling eyes with a set of slightly open smiling lips to match. He had a black backpack slung over one shoulder, which suggested he was a student. It also meant he blocked the aisle way back to the entrance door. Standing beside her as he was, she had no way to exit and had to continue.

“I’m rarely lucky in that way,” she replied.

“Maybe I could change your mind.”

“I don’t think so.”

She moved along, turned sideways as if browsing. She did not want to appear to be walking away from him frightened in any way. Her heart fluttered as he sidled along with her as they made the U-turn to the other side.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw he was carrying the Chance Meetings book.

“Are you actually buying it?”

“For you.”

“Why?”

“Maybe I want to change your mind. It’s a gift.”

“It’s too large. It won’t fit in my purse.”

“Everything you take on has to fit in that small purse? Does that mean you find size limiting?”

“Everything I have or will need is in this purse.”

“Are you joking?”

It was true. She had pleaded her final case long distance last month.

“I am trying to find work, Dad. I just need more time.”

“We can’t give you any more money. You can stay on the farm as long as you need to. Until you find a way to support yourself. It’s a gift.”

“It’s a gift horse.”

“If that means a kick in the ass, you got that right.”

“I feel like I am jumping off a cliff.”

“It’ll be a soft landing, little bird. You’re returning to the nest.”

She was staring blankly at this young man with a flattering glint in his eyes and the offer of another gift she was reluctant to accept.

“I’m dead serious. I’m about to jump off a cliff. This is my parachute.”

“Where are you jumping from? I’d like to come watch.”

“This is my last weekend in town. I came in here to look for a book to read on the plane. I shipped off all my things this morning. I didn’t remember to keep a novel out.”

“Maybe we can kill the time together.” He held up the book and pointed at the title like it was the answer to all my problems.

“I’m leaving…I’m on my way out.”

“Yes and I’m right behind you.”

“Look, there’s no point to pursuing me.”

“Excuse me. But since you are my prey, isn’t that my decision to make?”