13 modern english and american short stories

The book that never was. The book that remains a mystery since the customer leaves before the bookseller can conduct a complete and thorough investigation. Bookseller's would make great detectives if they didn't prefer books to people.

The woman came in with a rapid-fire list of books her mother ordered. She probably worked in the neighborhood and before the commute home she swept in hoping to do a quick errand for her mother in the suburbs. She appeared clutching a list, her mousey brown hair framing her face in wind-blown strands, tired eyes peering out of worn-out make-up. Wearning a wrinkled khaki raincoat with a belt that flapped out to one side haphazardly, she looked like the grey, rainy day that it was.

Two of the books on the crinkled paper she handed me shakily had been waiting patiently for mom all week. The third book, however, is where the mystery of this story lies. An awful long title for a book in bilingual fiction sought by students of English as a foreign language.

Th first factor making this a hard case: not my department, and my colleague whose department it was had disappeared upstairs unawares. This is the worst kind of colleague disappearance since you have no earthly way of knowing when they'll be back. Suddenly the immense size of the bookstore oppressed me. She could be anywhere, like the book...maybe she has the book??

Meanwhile the customer is having a somewhat hostile cell phone conversation with her mother. Mom's not much help. Confusion and discouragement are imminent.

The second factor working against the case: the computer says we have 2 copies of this god-awful long title but they are nowhere to be found on the shelf. Still no sign of my colleague and the customer gave up and left.

I, however, continued to search until my shift ended.

The case is not closed. My colleague did eventually turn up though. There's one mystery solved.