Books Chapter 23...

 Books Chapter Twenty Two

“Oh no!”

“Why oh no? I think that was great. He was pretty slick getting her to back down from attacking him because of his name. And we even got a plug for the event…oh no!”

“Exactly! It’s sold out. People can’t just stop by. Hopefully nobody will think they can. I don’t want to make anybody mad. Do you think that people will just stop by?”

“Okay, even if they do, how many people would it be? It’s a local TV show in the middle of the morning so how many people are even watching to start. And the event starts in an hour. Most people will check a website before they head out and our website clearly shows that it’s sold out. It will be fine. I’m sure of it.”

“Okay, you’re probably right. And we can always ask him to sign a few extra copies just incase somebody does stop by and…”

“Breathe. Just take a deep breath. It will all be fine. We’ve done this before. You know what to do. You have this.”

“You’re right. It’s just that this is so many more people than we’ve done before. And I want it to go really well.”

They had held events for each of Ellie’s new releases and they had gotten bigger and bigger each time. But Ellie had always wanted to keep the numbers fairly small. Even though she was able to sell out much larger event spaces for readings now, she wanted to feel as though she was reading to just friends when she was in Gloria’s store.

Peter wanted to have the biggest event he could have in the space. He only wanted to do one reading and signing instead of a full book tour. He had no plans to write another book ever. He hadn’t really planned on writing this one, but Ellie had convinced him he could reach more people this way than just through the outreach program of the charity they had set up. She reminded him that there were people who could do a lot of good in the world who would never join a group to do so.

Gloria was also sure that there were people who had signed up to listen to Peter who had done so hoping to see Ellie. She would never say that out loud to Peter, but honestly, he probably already knew. He was never intimidated by how successful Ellie’s writing career was. All of them had known she would be huge. Gloria was her original fan, but Peter and Jade had been there since college. You couldn’t help but fall in love with her worlds.

Owning a bookstore hadn’t been her original plan but looking back over her life she thought there was no other ending that would have felt as right. Every good thing in her life had come to her through books. Either reading them, recommending them, learning not to judge someone by the one they carried, or hitting someone in the face with them.

Today during Peter’s signing she and Jade would be announcing their own contribution to making the world what they wanted it to be. They would be starting up a free book program. Modeled after Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library they would be working with local groups to make sure every kid had books of their own. She and Jade had dreams of eventually having a scholastic book fair type set up with books, posters, and games for the kids to choose from. But for now, it was a selection of books that had been donated. New books. With plenty of choices.

Every good thing in her life had come to her through books. She couldn’t wait to pass that along.

“Uh, hon?”

“Yeah?”

“Does that look like more people that we were expecting?”

Gloria looked out the window and saw a massive line forming in the parking lot. Definitely more than they were expecting.

The bell on the back door rang as Ellie and Peter arrived.

Ellie called out, “We’re here! The interview went well! Did you see it?”

“We’re up here. I think we might have a problem.”

Ellie’s eyes widened, “Does the store really hold that many people?”

“No, it doesn’t. I think there were a lot of people watching that interview who decided to come check it out for themselves. I’m not sure what we are going to do.”

Peter laughed, “This is great!”

“No, it’s not. We were already sold out. I mean, we have some extra books, but I don’t even know if we have enough extra for all of them. And I can’t fit them inside. And they are going to be so pissed…”

“I’ve got a few boxes in the car that they sent me to sign, and we can sell those today, the publisher can send me replacements later. And we can let in the first wave of people, the ones with the tickets for the original event for the reading and let everyone else know that I will sign until my hand gives out if they want to stick around.”

Ellie chimed in, “I think I can help entertain the overflow crowd for a bit as well, I’ve actually got a piece I’ve been working on that we could give them a sneak preview. We will make sure that everyone has a good time.”

Jade took Gloria’s hand, “We’ve got this. We always do.”

Peter laughed, “Yes, we do! Let’s go be the change!”

Ellie smiled, “He’s still a little pumped from the interview. Let’s see how he feels after a few hours of signing Berranger over and over.”

“Peter B. works!”

“Alright, let’s get this party started.”

With that Gloria stepped outside to sort the crowd announcing the changes to the schedule and what they were going to do to make sure everyone left happy. She hadn’t needed to worry so much. Friendships were formed in that line that day that did end up changing the world.

Every good thing in her life had come from books.