Today was the day you would find it, you were sure of it. Yet another bookstore in yet another small town where the streets had more pot holes then drivable roads and everyone's cars were a certain tint of red due to the clay dirt spun from tires going down dirt paths. There were barely any cars to be seen sitting on the side of the road but plenty of small shops lined the streets. This town looked almost as if it had walked out of an old black and white film. You had driven over thirty hours and this was the first sign of civilization you came across, your olive green Oasis camper van sat in the middle of the parking lot locked up with sun reflectors covering your windows. As you drew nearer to the shops you could tell that there was a barber, a salon, a few boutiques and a mom and pop fish house at the very end which you could see from where you were standing. Despite all the old thrifts and pawn shops you passed you can't help but keep your eyes on the purple and white building that set nestled in between two stone buildings that looked much more upkept. The front windows were lined with books wrapped in pink and multicolored paper covered in hearts and other valentine looking prints. The door had a window with cursive letter that read 'The Readers Nook'. You cross the street listening to the lick of the street light as it flashes red. Once you make it across you find that the front of the shop is lined with flowers of all types, you figured whoever owned the shop probably spent a lot more time tending to the flowers then actually selling anything.
"Look out!" You hear someone yell from your right but you can't even get a look at them before they crash into you making you fall to the ground covering you in a thick red dust. You shoulder hurt from the impact and your elbows were scraped from falling onto the gravel, while holding your head you sit up and find a young man about the same age as yourself lying on the ground doing much the same as you, holding his head and trying to right himself after hitting the equivalent of a brick wall going full speed. He was wearing a sunflower yellow t-shirt and a pair of jeans that seem to fit him well with a pair of generic sneakers. You noticed a backpack laying on the ground that had come unzipped in the tussle letting lots of gadgets scatter over the ruble, some things even landed in the planter box that held the flowers you were previously admiring.
"In a hurry are we?" You ask nonchalantly while you bring yourself back up to your feet doing your best to brush off the left over dirt and dust. The boy does the same however he doesn't respond to me instead ignoring me completely while scrambling to gather his things shoving them into the bag, you move to begin helping him gather everything but before you an grasp some sort of metal wand or tool he yells out.
"Don't touch that!" He grabs whatever the tool was before you are able to leaving you to back away with your hands up in defeat. Obviously this kid had some shit going on and wasn't handling the stress well and you hate to get in between him and whatever war path he's set on. Soon he determines that everything there was to get up is now safely put back into his bag and he again takes off in the same direction he was headed before, a sprint turing into a full out run the farther he got from you.
"Have a nice day?" You call out after him not knowing weather he heard you or not, you shrug 'what a strange interaction.' you thought yto yourself before turning back towards the old bookstore from before.
It was the 5th book store you'd visited on your venture through the states on your search to find a specific copy of Le Petite Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This specific copy was first edition that had been translated to polish from 1947 with an old canvas cover with a crued original drawing of the little prince on the cover with his staff and cape. Yes this would be a nearly impossible book to find but the truth was you had all the time in the world to look for it, sure you were diverting from your original task of finding a college to go to once this summer was over but you found that you had no interest in pursuing a career of any kind really. Your parents, the loving and trusting souls that they were had given you the go ahead to ride around alone to find a college and town that 'suited you' almost like sending a which out on her 13th birthday to find the town she would live in and serve, like some kind of initiation. You however chose to spend your time not looking for colleges or mates and instead went searching for far off bookstores hoping to find a book you'd lost long ago. It was one your father had given you long ago, passed down through generations in your family, when you were young you put it into box of other things your mother would be donating to her church which would then go to multiple thrifts across the state.
You'd hoped to find it here, now, in this little bookstore that set nestled in the middle of nowhere. A bell chimed above your head when you pushed the heavy wooden door open hearing as the hinges creaked as you pushed it farther open. From what you could tell the inside matched the outside, Tall wooden bookshelves with white hipping paint were lined in front of you each shelf filled with books of every size shape and color. The smell of mint and lemon grass was strong but it couldn't cover the smell of old wet wood and a distinct musk that hung in the air. The carpet was dirty and worn down to the threads holding it together but you could tell at some point it had been a marvelous royal purple.
"I'm back here!" You heard a younger woman call from somewhere behind the many bookshelves. You step into the book store letting the door shut behind you as you take in the immense amount of books stacked high in every corner. Its seemed like she had ,at some point, run out of space for all the books she was keeping so instead of finding more room for bookshelves she began separating them into stacks with labels for what type they were; action, adventure, Romance, every kind you could think of was here and you hoped the one of a kind you were looking for could be found here as well. All you needed to see was the inside cover where your father had written a message to younger you, in hopes that one day you might read it to your children and they might find the same meanings of life out of it that you had at that age.
You regretted doing such a thing so carelessly when you were younger not understanding the sentimental value it would then hold in the years after when his death tore your family to pieces. Your mother had taken years to recover and eventually found love in a local banksman that seemed to differ from your father in every way. His sharp edges and short cut demeanor made you feel as if a drill sergeant had taken over your home turning it into a military base, you never understood what your mother saw in that brute of a man. He had never touched or harmed you in any way, never spoke an ill word but he never went out of his way to express that you were important at all. He married your mother but you guess wasn't prepared for the child that came with her so instead of trying to include you into his life he soon pushed you out of it leaving our interactions to be short lived and generic. You had no friends and most of the time prefered it that way seeing as moving from place to place was not ideal for keeping in touch or starting up any sort of relationship, it had taken a toll on your love life but it never bothered you any way.
You make it around the teetering stacks of books to find a young woman with three attacks of books in hand standing behind a white desk. She wore her hair in a tight and high point tail and she wore big glasses over her eyes making her eyes look large and round. She wore a large t-shirt that hung like a dress over her small thin figure and a pair of Jean shorts that hung barely visible from under her long shirt. The books she was holding all looked old and worn down with the spines ripped off and the three corners bent into nubs. Some of them you could see had large round dark stains along the covers indicating water damage to them at some point.
"Welcome to the Readers Nook!" She says chirply as the stacks in her hands begin to tumble forward making her move to stead them.
"Have a look around, let me know if I can help you with anything." With that said she starts to tap away on a computer that looks much older then she does. Your eyes begin to wander the many books on the dusty shelves, you wondered if she ever sold anything from here because if she did it there was enough time in between sales for dust to gather on the shelves and on the books. Nothing was organized in any manner, if it had been you wouldn't need to search every book on the shelf in order to find the specific one.
"Looking for some specific?" you her her ask from behind you slightly startling you after standing in silence for so long.
"Yes actually, I'm looking for a copy of the little prince but this copy will be called Maly Ksiaze. It's written in Polish." You say to her while still thumbing over the shelves of the current book case.
"Hmmm, Don't know if i can say i've seen anything like it but i've found weirder in these stacks of books so you'll just have to look around." With that she heads outside wearing gardening gloves and caring a small shovel, just as you assumed she spent more time out with the flowers then she did inside with the books. You had planned to spend the entire afternoon searching amongst the shelves and stacks of book and that's exactly what you did, dusk to dawn, from one end to the other. The clerk had come in more the once to check on you and even attempted to help in your search but gave up not to long after instead going to the back to watch to watch the tv you could hear from the other room. Eventually you get done with the last stack of books in the back corner and sigh finding yet another dead end, at this rate you might be out of money and out of time before ever finding the book.
You bid her farewell and start on your way back to your van feeling a little deflated, over time the disappoint didn't hurt so much but never went away completely. You always had that feeling before you walked into a new book store, that this one might be the one that ends your quest to find this lost treasure. You hear the ding of the bell as the door comes to a close behind you leaving you to look at the setting sun, you were certain that if you were to stayed parked where you were you could get a full nights sleep and a meal from the fish place across the street. You begin walking back to your van when small glimmer catches your eyes and you see a blue metal box that has all types of patterns along the sides, Its nestles between the building and the flower bed just out of few for passers by. Picking it up from its hiding place you can see now that there is a big red button on the top and it reminds you of a jack in the box only there was no opening for the clown to jump out from.
You move it around in your hands admiring it while making your way back to your van, certainly it had fallen from the bookbag the boy was carrying but you had no hope of finding him any time soon. So instead of worrying anymore about it you simply put it in the front seat after crawling your way into the back of your van and taking a seat on the small couch. You'd had a long day and were more then ready to settle into this uncomfortable fold out bed and drift away into a deep sleep. You brush your teeth and take off the old clothes from the day before and sit them into the dirty laundry basket before pulling out the old creaking fold out and setting up your pillows and fluffy blankets. You find yourself scrolling endlessly on any platform you can find videos on but your attention is brought back to the blue box sitting in the front seat, your curiosity seemed to outway the latter so you reach into the front seat and grab the small box in your hands coming back to rest in a sitting position on your bed. As your hand hits the big red button on top of this odd box you hear a poof, suddenly your startled by a shrill voice.
"HI I'M MR. MEESEEKS LOOK AT ME!"