Day 10: The Second Hand Book Store

 " Let's go in here!" He pulled open the door to a tiny shop in the mostly abandoned strip mall. I followed after him grinning. Our Saturday adventures were always a good time. I loved to see him get excited especially since his job was draining at best. 

He held the door for me as we passed into the musty smelling second hand book store. It was small. The books were stacked on shelves and in piles most of them all the way to the low ceiling. There was barely enough room for one to walk between the stacks of books. He squeezed passed me and headed deeper into the maze of paperbacks with yellowing pages. 

I should have felt claustrophobic or maybe a little anxious at the obvious fire hazard I had entered. Instead I breathed in the smell of old binding and settled into looking for a new friend among the titles. 

" Come look at this!" He called from deeper in the books. I moved to go farther in but struggled to move passed a bump in the carpet. 

"Jim," I laughed, "I need your help." 

He appeared from around a corner," What? Oh." He smiled. 

" You know," I grunted. " this would be so much more romantic without the baby stroller." I smiled as he helped lift the end of our daughters stroller up just enough to get passed the lump in the carpeted floor. 

He smiled down at our sleeping baby girl, she was completely undisturbed by her jostling carriage. " No, I think it's very attractive to see you with our baby." 

I looked around at the book stacks brushing against the strollers sides and how sharp the next corner was. "I don't think I can get back there to see what you wanted to show me."  

He wrapped his hand around mine on the stroller handle. " It's ok. Let's go get lunch. We can always come back another time." He edged passed me to the get the door. Our baby sighed in her sleep as I backed out of the store and she bumped over the threshold. 

"You know," I said as we walked hand in hand down the sidewalk, "she probably stopped us from getting sucked into some fantasy adventure. Old book stores are where things like that happen."

"Of course," He said, "She can't have her parents disappearing into some magical alternate dimension. Who would change her diapers."