Page 61 of Perfect Mess

MARY:

nvmnd

Touché universe. Touché. After everything we had done to prepare, Janet wasn’t coming.

“Time to move to Plan B,” I announced.

“Plan B? What’s Plan B?”

I did not know what Plan B was. “Plan B is, well, Plan B is even better than Plan A.”

Gary asked, “If Plan B was better than Plan A, why didn’t we just start with Plan B to begin with?”

Because I’m making this up as I go.

ChapterFourteen

The Book Belle bookstore where Janet worked was a nerd’s wet dream. Rare comic books hung on the walls like posters. Collectible toys, movie memorabilia, and anatomically inflated action figures were staged on the shelves and counters. Oh, and they had books too.

Gary’s eyes glazed over as soon as we walked inside. “What is this place?” I suspect his tofu package went from extra to super firm.

“The Book Belle,” I said. “This is where Janet works.” After high school, Janet had gone to college and majored in literature, which basically qualified her for absolutely zero actual jobs. So she ended up getting a job at The Book Belle, and had worked her way up the ranks.

“Janet works here?” Gary was like a little boy that just found out his best friend’s mom worked at a candy factory with unlimited free samples.

I nodded, “Yup.”

Ever since people started getting their books online, cheaper than any small business could afford, independent bookstores like the Book Belle had to get creative. And Janet was a genius in creative marketing. It was her passion that had kept this place afloat, even as most of the other bookstores around town had gone the way of the dinosaurs. Speaking of which, on the shelf above us, a tyrannosaurus rex chased a flux capacitor fueled DeLorean about to run over Frankenstein.

We weaved our way through the labyrinth. Books of all sizes, shapes, and colors packed the shelves. New and used. Fiction and nonfiction. Cook books. Romance novels. Science Fiction and Do-It-Yourself.

There were dozens of spaceships hanging from strings pinned to the ceiling, an epic space battle milieu. Stormtroopers and Klingons and Transformers waged war across the shelves.

“This place is awesome.” Gary stood in awe as an electric circus train transporting plastic lions, tigers, and bears twisted through a mushroom themed village of gnomes, defending their village against an onslaught of Smurfs.

“Okay, Charlie, you can go play in the chocolate factory later. Right now, we have a job to do.”

It was good to see him smile. Weird that he was smiling at all the nonsense, but still good.

“And what exactly is the job? Specifically?”

“I’ll tell you,” I said. And I planned to as soon as I figured it out myself.

I looked around the bookstore, desperate for inspiration. Based on what I was seeing, we could either make Janet walk the plank off a spaceship into some sort of desert sinkhole creature with tentacles and teeth, or hop across yellow blocks in a plumber outfit and bounce on the head of a big green dragon until it pooped gold coins out its butt.

“Hey, look at this.” Gary pulled a random book from a random shelf next to where we were standing. He held it up for me to see.Modern Architecture.

“Holy shit, you’re brilliant.” I punched him in his arm.

“Ouch.”

“We’re going back to Plan A.”

“I thought you said Plan B was better than A.”

“The situation is fluid.”

“I have no idea what any of this means.”

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