He showed up just as Sarah was getting ready to close the shop for the night. It had been a fairly slow day, and, at a few minutes before nine o'clock, she was walking around the store straightening up the shelves, aligning the spines of the books, picking up stray coffee cups that customers had left in the corners, and running a dustcloth over any flat surface she came across. Sarah had sent Cate, one of the part-time clerks, home at 8:00, and there had been no customers since then. It would get busier in the next few weeks--the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas were the busiest of the year--but tonight the bookshop was quiet, and she was enjoying it without the distraction of the customers who, she knew she had to admit, allowed her to keep it open.

She loved the bookstore and had always wanted to own one, but she often thought that it was just the shop itself she wanted, and not the problems and hassles of actually running it. She didn't enjoy the bookkeeping aspects of it, she didn't enjoy supervising her small staff--although the two young people who worked for her part time really didn't need much supervising, since she had either done a good job in hiring them or just been exceptionally lucky--and frankly she didn't much enjoy dealing with the customers. She found it hard to make small talk with the locals, and she never really knew what to say to the tourists, feeling she didn't really belong in either camp. She made a good show of it, though, and probably no one else really knew how difficult it was for her to spend entire days in the company of other people.

Still, she knew it was good for her, it kept her busy, and there were certainly worse ways to make a living. She often thought she might have been happier working in a library somewhere, but this was the life she had chosen for the moment, and she'd keep at it for awhile anyway. She did enjoy the beautiful old shop with its hardwood floors and the old-fashioned wooden counter, and the small things she had added, like the big brass coffee urn on its table in the corner, made it seem almost as much a home to her now as her little house near the beach.

It was Sophie's home, too, of course--the big old longhaired cat had come with the shop. The previous owner had left in a rush, leaving a desk full of personal papers, an apartment full of furniture in the rooms above the shop, and Sophie. He had been starting a new life, too, running off with a new lover, and for a few months Sarah expected him to show up any day, wanting to claim the things he had left. She had finally packed up the personal papers and stored them in back of the store, and after a few months, she'd rented the upstairs apartment to an elderly couple who only used it a few months out of the year, which suited her just fine.

They were there enough to make her feel comfortable with them, but gone enough that she never felt like they smothered her. It was a nice arrangement for everyone, and if he ever did show up, she would happily hand over the boxes of papers, but fight to the death to keep Sophie.

Her back was to the door as she stood between two tall shelves of books, and she thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Thinking maybe it was the cat, she called out softly, "Soph?" but there was no answering meow. She moved out into the open area of the shop and saw a man standing in front of the table of local interest books: books on seashells, marine life, beach preservation, Florida history. The locals generally knew all that, of course, or else they weren't interested and didn't care, but tourists expected it in a Florida bookshop. They needed to be able to buy books by Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry and John D. McDonald, and they liked to find them all in one place.

The brass bell hanging from the front door handle hadn't rung, unless she'd been so engrossed in her own thoughts that she hadn't heard it. "Hello!" she called as she approached him. "Can I help you with anything?" He turned and smiled. "No, thank you, just looking." He was tall, with dark hair curling over his collar, pale skin, and dark circles under each eye. He looked like someone who didn't get much sleep.

He also looked like he didn't belong in Florida--neither a local nor a tourist. For one thing, he was dressed like someone from one of the northern cities: black jeans, black t-shirt, black boots, and, most unusual of all, a long black overcoat. Even in November, that was something you didn't see often in Florida. That, more than the fact that he wasn't wearing the obligatory shorts and Hawaiian print shirt, marked him as something other than the ordinary tourist.

She noticed that he had picked up a copy of "Seashells of the Gulf Coast" and was flipping idly through it. "Okay," she said, "Let me know if you need anything," and turned back to her dusting. She glanced back at him over her shoulder, and found him looking at her, but when he saw her looking, he quickly turned back to the book.

Fine, she thought. But don't pretend you're interested in sea shells, of all things.

She finished the dusting, folded the cloth, then leaned over the sales counter to put it back in the drawer. When she straightened up again, the man was gone. Good, she thought. She could close the shop and head home--it was close enough to closing time that she doubted any other customers would be coming in. And the guy had spooked her just a little; she was glad he had gone, and eager to lock the door. Although, come to think of it, she hadn't heard the bell ring that time, either.

Musing on that, she walked toward the back of the store to get her bag from the office. And there he was again. "Oh!" she cried, startled. He was standing in front of the table where she kept a small collection of gift items and tourist souvenirs, eyes closed, holding something in his closed fist. Feeling her looking at him, he opened his eyes and his fist at the same time, and she saw that he had been holding a large quartz crystal. "This is a good one," he said, smiling, and held it out to her on his open palm.

She looked up at him and, startled again, saw that his eyes were a pale, almost silvery blue. She hadn't noticed that before, but maybe she just hadn't been close enough to see. She held out her hand to take the crystal from him, but rather than letting her pick it up, he held it and placed it gently in her palm. "A good one, huh?" she asked, and he said, "Yes, it is. Nice vibrations."

"Uh huh. Did you want to buy it?"

"No, just . . . browsing."

"Okay," she said, setting the crystal back down on the table among the others. "Well, I'm getting ready to close the shop, can I help you with anything else?"

He stood there for a moment as if debating whether she could help him with anything (perhaps the shell book, or maybe the crystal after all), but then shook his head. "No, I won't keep you. Good night."

He moved away toward the door, and she watched him for a moment before saying, "Good night, then," and locked the door behind him.

She walked slowly back to the table with the crystals and moved a few things around, creating a more pleasing arrangement. Two wooden shelves hung on the wall behind the table, holding blank journals, decks of tarot cards, and a few CDs. There were crystals and stones and shells on the table, along with several brass figurines and, as it grew closer to Christmastime, some snowscape globes with beach scenes inside.

Fearful of turning the bookshop into a gift shop, Sarah tried not to buy too many of these kinds of things, but she liked having them around, and it did draw in a few people who might not otherwise visit the bookstore. She liked the energy that they brought to the shop, too; while she'd never stoop to talking about "vibrations," there were certain stones and bits of crystal that made her happy just to touch them.

She picked up the big clear crystal that the man had held and carried it back to the sales counter with her. She thought about it for a moment, gazing at nothing, then stuck it in the pocket of her skirt.

Sophie was sound asleep in the upholstered chair in the corner of Sarah's office, and Sarah stroked her smooth warm head on her way by. "'Nite, Soph," she said, "Sleep tight, see you in the morning." She hoisted her totebag onto her shoulder, turned out the lights, and locked the door for the second time that night.

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