Page 14 of The Midnight Book Club
“I was just… curious,” he said, flashing a shy smile before wrinkling his brow, looking for a moment as confused as she felt.“Take care, Aurelia.”
He walked away and she stared after him, eventually managing to say “Take care,” to his back.
He turned and gave a small wave, then continued on his way.
“What on earth was that?”Aurelia wondered under her breath.
Though she had to admit, she hadn’t minded it all that much.It’d been too long since she had kissed someone, and what was the harm when they would never see each other again?Besides, it was an awfully good kiss.
10
Aureliahadpracticallyfallenasleep at the bar, but she felt more alert as she walked home and thought about her very odd first date—onlydate—with Oliver.David and Antonia had been pushing her to get out, to leave the shop and spend time in the world again after holing herself up over the past year.It felt like everyone was pushing and prodding her—running the shop before she was ready, going out on dates when she didn’t want to, and getting haunted as an unwelcome housewarming present.
As she got closer to the shop, her thoughts started turning over the last few nights and what she might find—or wake up to—later.She felt anxious to go back inside, but also irritated to think that whatever she’d been experiencing was keeping her from sleep and from feeling safe in what was now her home.
Standing outside, she peered through the windows and confirmed there was nothing, ghost or human, lurking around.She unlocked the door and stepped inside, then shrugged off her coat as she headed toward the spiral staircase.But when she passed the Recommended Reads table, she paused.Looking at the books she’d set out earlier in the day, she thought again of the man’s hand passing through one on that very table just last night.She’d watched those people, or ghosts, from between the bars of the mezzanine railing, then listened from behind the door to the flat—too scared and bewildered to face them.But perhaps it was time for her to take a stand when everything and everyone seemed to be conspiring to move her along like something caught up in the tide.She wanted to plant her feet and refuse to budge for once.
Confronting these late-night visitors rather than hiding from them seemed like a good place to start.And wasn’t that what films and books insisted you were supposed to do when you were being haunted by ghosts?You had to ask them why they were there and then help them to ‘move on.’She’d been in the shop with them twice now, and no one had tried to harm her.Surely she’d be safe in the same room with them if they weren’t solid enough to touch a book, she reasoned.
Resolved to face whatever it was she’d been experiencing, she went to the back room, made a strong cup of coffee, and stationed herself at the desk, ready for the arrival of the crowd of people she’d seen the night before.But minutes passed, then an hour, then two, and still she was the only person in the shop.After so many nights with so little sleep, Aurelia struggled to stay awake, and her eyelids grew heavier and heavier with each blink.
Aurelia couldn’t have said how long she’d slept, but at some point, she began to regain consciousness.She heard voices all around her; some were quietly intense, some were boisterous and loud, some were nearby, and some seemed to be coming down to her from the mezzanine.
She opened one eye.Her head was resting against a book she’d opened just before falling asleep, her cheek pressed to its pages.With both eyes open now, she tried to take in her surroundings but she couldn’t see above the ledge that ran the length of the desk.She knew, at least, that she was in the shop, but there was something different—some element that was unlike its familiar setting.
The voices seemed to solidify so that she could now make out specific conversations.The ghosts or hallucinations—whatever she’d been seeing in the shop—must be here, all around her!The realization gripped her in a panic that stopped her heart for a beat before it began pounding in her chest.
Sliding off her chair, she crouched under the desk.Her bravery and insistence that these people weren’t real had vanished now; she was terrified to find herself in their midst.She carefully peered out and grabbed the nearest item that could serve as a weapon—a stapler that had never seemed dainty until now—and pulled it back under the desk with her.As she strained her ears again, she realized that the voices weren’t hushed or rushed.Just like the other nights, whoever was there didn’t seem in a hurry to leave.The conversations seemed to be light and excitable, as though they were all gathered for a polite round of drinks.So what was she afraid of?
Collecting her wits, Aurelia tried to convince herself that, as the shop owner, she ought to take control and assess the situation.She slowly rose up so that she could just see above the raised ledge of the desk, the stapler gripped in one hand.There were women in fine gowns and one in a more humble, homespun dress.There was a man in a frock coat and another in a slightly worn suit.As she took in the scene, she realized that she didn’t seem to recognize anyone.Gone were the feathered woman and the mutton-chopped man.How had this new group managed to take their place?And why?
The man in the frock coat caught Aurelia’s eye and started to smile in acknowledgment.Her eyes widened and she dove under the desk, not yet ready to face them after all.
She thought through what she had just seen.The people looked very real and solid—no misty hands tonight.Had they, in fact, broken into the shop?But she’d checked that the door was locked as she had waited for them to appear, so where had they come from?Were they the ghosts of departed customers who had come back to haunt the shop?
She slowly raised her head above the desk again.Two people were talking about someone named Joe.An elderly man was speaking with a young woman about a rose garden.These two looked a little familiar, but Aurelia couldn’t say for certain whether she’d seen them last night.And on the mezzanine, two women were talking about plans to have their mother and younger sister join them for Christmas at a place called Barton Park.
She was still trying to make sense of these snippets of conversation when an accented male voice sounded immediately to her right and made her scramble to her feet.
“Good evening, madame.”
Aurelia spun around, one hand clutching the stapler and the other holding onto the edge of the desk for support.The voice belonged to a man of medium height and build, with dark hair that was receding at his forehead.He was dressed in a navy-blue military uniform with gold epaulettes on his shoulders that caught the light, but despite the formality of his uniform, he carried himself with a relaxed air—as though he were wearing a tracksuit.
“Madame, you must forgive me, I have frightened you,” the man said, his face full of concern.
Aurelia took a moment to catch her breath.One of them was talking to her.
“You did frighten me,” she managed to say at last.“More to the point, all of this—all of you—frightened me.”She looked around briefly before settling her eyes back on the man in front of her.
“Were you not expecting us?”His lip twitched to one side, as if amused by her surprise.
“Definitely not.”Aurelia looked again at the people who were still talking to one another, unaware of, or unconcerned by, her presence.No one moved toward her, making her feel reasonably safe, all things considered.
“Where are the other people?The woman with the feather?The man with the… the hand?”Aurelia asked, pointing at her hair and then waggling her hand in the air.
The uniformed man looked around the room.
“I have not seen a woman with a feather,” he said slowly, as though Aurelia might be slightly mad.“But there are several men here.Is there a particular gentleman with whom you wish to speak?”
