Chapter 4 Whales & sons bookstore

The bookstore was not very far from the subway stop, and it was nicely

located next to a big tree, which was full of bright green little leaves. The

local seemed relatively little for a bookstore, but that was just fine for Easy:

“the less people come, the better” she thought. The signboard hanged on

the top read: “ Whales & sons ”

The shop window was nicely decorated, with some books open to show the

beautiful illustrations, some flower garlands on the bottom and a picture of

a famous writer with a discount advertisement right next to his face.

However, it had some dust, showing it was a little bit old. But the thing that

caught Easy’s notice most was the big paper taped on the entrance door:

“CASHIER NEEDED”.

When Ed and Easy entered, the door hit a tiny bell hanging over it, making

it ring, and the two boys who were inside stopped talking, turning to face

them: one was blond with sky-blue eyes, but he was dressed as a cowboy,

hat included. The other had colored skin, and very short dark black hair �"if

black could be any darker- and he was wearing an apron: he obviously

worked there too, as he was placing some books on a shelf.

“Well, it seems the lad’s found a damsel” the cowboy said, accentuating his

American accent.

“Hi guys, this is Easy, the new cashier” Ed said, waving to his friends.

The cowboy reached Easy, and taking her hand he said “Honored to make

your acquaintance, my lady” and he kissed her fingers. “My name’s Sheriff

Gerard, at your service.”

Easy didn’t know what to think, nor what to say: New York was really the

Land of Oz.

“Oh boy, drop it Jerry!” Ed said, and turning to the shocked Easy he

explained: “He’s an actor. He’s been hired for a Western theatric comedy or

something”

“Oh man, you always have to spoil everything, don’t ya? Hey-yo pretty, I

was just joking- he put off his hat laughing, revealing his gold hair- ‘am

Jerry, nice to meet you”. Jerry was tall and thin, and looked about Easy’s

age.

“N-nice to meet you, too”

Ed moved toward the boy with the apron and said: “Easy, this is Barry.

Barry, Easy”.

Barry looked a little bit defensive, like if Easy was there to punch him in the

face. “Nice to meet you, Barry. I’ll hope we’ll work together well” she said,

stretching out her hand.

“Yeah. Welcome” he said, answering to the shaking a little reluctantly.

“Okay, so this is the cash �" Ed said, waving at the counter- come here, so

I’ll tell you how it works”

“Wait a minute” Easy interrupted him. “Shouldn’t I meet the boss first? I

mean, he has to decide whether I shall stay or not”

“The boss?!” Jerry said that word like if it were in a foreign language.

“Eddie, you didn’t tell her?” and he laughed.

“Tell me what?” Easy was worried all of a sudden.

“Girl” Barry looked at her with a smile “Eddie’s the boss here”

“What?!” she couldn’t believe it. She had hanged around, laughed, joked

and everything, with her boss. She turned to look at Eddie, surprised.

“His name’s Ed Whales!” Jerry said, after he’d recovered from his laugh,

and he put an arm around Ed’s neck.

“Alright, hang on. It’s true, I’m Whales, but I’m not the boss! My father is,

and I’m just the responsible of this little of the many and much more

important branches of our bookstore”

Easy thought about something smart to say. “So, uhm, I guess I’m hired?”

she asked finally, a little bit shyly.

“Oh, absolutely yes. I’ve been doing this job for what seemed an eternity,

and I surely don’t want to be doing it again. C’mon, let me show you how it

works.”

The day passed on quickly and peacefully. “A little too peacefully” Easy

thought: there hasn’t been a shadow of a customer for the whole day.

After she did some practice, checking some books’ price on the computer,

or passing some codes under the laser and getting comfortable with the

counter and all the piles of paper bags with a whale printed on them placed

under it, she asked to Barry: “Is every day this quietly?”

“Yeah, I guess so. This street is not so busy, and we don’t have lots of new

books” he answered, sweePing the floor for the third time.

In the meanwhile, Eddie has removed the advertisement sign from the

door, and now he was surfing on the Net with his iPhone 6S. “Heavy stuff!”

Easy thought. Besides, he was a daddy’s boy, wasn’t he?

Jerry left the place long time before, saying that he had to do his play and

that he had to do some practice with the pistols and rifles. Easy hoped he

meant toy pistols and rifles.

When the clock hands hit the 2 PM, Barry took off his apron and opened

the door, saying : “Okay guys, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye Barry” Eddie and Easy said with one voice.

Turning to Easy, Eddie said with a smile: “So, are you heading home?”

“Oh, no, not yet. I wanted to go to Central Park first…to play my violin” she

answered, locking the cash.

“That’s great! I’ll make you some company, then. But first, we have to eat

something”.

Easy was surprised by the nonchalance with which he auto-invited himself

and decided to have lunch with her. They have just met this morning, and

she just couldn’t trust him that easily. It was too dangerous. What if he was

a bad guy? They had to go lunch, well, where was the place exactly? What

if he brought her away and kidnapped her?

While she was making this thinking standing behind the counter, Eddie’s

hand was already on the doorknob, and he was looking at her: “What’s

wrong?”

“Can I ask you how old are you?” she inquired seriously, squeezing her eyes

a bit.

Eddie seemed not to get the question at first, but then he grinned and

laughed softly : “Easy, if I wanted to do something to you, it would have

been a long time ago- he stretched out his hands to show his innocence- so

why don’t we just trust each other and eat something? I mean, we’re team

workers now, it’s like a family!”

Easy felt suddenly ashamed of herself: she has just doubted of the guy who

rescued her precious violin, asking for no reward back. How many times in

our life do we really meet someone who we really enjoy? And why do we

always have to doubt, and feel uncomfortable when we finally meet that

someone? That’s what Eddie’s answer really meant to Easy.

Walking down the streets of Park Avenue, Easy’s stomach started to growl:

she was really hungry. But the worst of it was that her boss heard that.

“Okay, let’s stop over here, I’ll take two hot-dogs. Ketchup or mustard?” he

asked, laughing a bit.

“Oh no thanks, I’ll eat when I get home”

“C’mon, I wanna here you playing your violin, not your stomach. Ketchup or

mustard?”

“But, I just don’t like hot-dogs, thanks.”

Eddie looked at her as if she was an UFO: “You what? Have you ever even

tasted one before?”

“Well, no but I supposed they’re greasy, and unhealthy and- oh no, wait,

c’mon Mr Whales!” but Eddie was already by the hot-dogs peddler, paying

the bill.

When he came back with one roll per hand, he said smiling “First, you call

me Eddie. Second, when someone asks you ketchup or mustard, you

answer ketchup. Mustard sucks” and he handed her a hot dog sunk in a lot

of ketchup.

Easy didn’t know what to say, so she just smiled back, and bit the roll: it

was insanely good