The Key to Love

Thousands of people gathered around the girl standing in the midst of Times Square. With eager faces, they searched her eyes and counted her every breath, waiting for her to speak.

“I’ve found the key to love,” she has said during an interview on Good Morning America last week. She would not disclose this knowledge to the millions of viewers glued to their television sets as she spoke softly into hush of the crowds. “If you want to know,” she had said, “meet me at Times Square on September 13^th at 7 o’clock. I will release the key at that time.”

For the next week following the interview, people booked flights and hotel rooms, they drove distances and crossed oceans. No one, not even the greatest of scientist, had been able to decipher the key. To think that this small girl could know what has baffled others years and years. All had failed to find it until this day. This day would change everything.

September 13^th had finally arrived. The girl stood in the midst of the masses of hungry eyes, black with anticipation. Her palms sweated, her knees shook from under her. She felt the sun beating down on the part of our hair, tanning her scalp and pealing her skin. She had been standing there all day, anxious to tell the world what it was that she had discovered. The clock struck 7 and she brought the microphone to her lips. A whisper that would change the world.

“I’ve found the key to love,” she said, sliding her fingers into the pocket of her jeans. She pulled out a photograph. It was small, delicate and held the most powerful image the world would ever see. She held it up to the sky and every eye on Earth went moist with tears. Some in the crowd cried out and some cheered. Everyone felt relief, joy and peace. At this moment, everything made sense. The tiny photograph that brought the world to its’ knees. . . was a photograph of you.

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Goodbye my Love, Farewell.

The books laid flatly in awkward angles amongst the fingerprinted shelves. Cd's lay strewn across the countertops, packaging hidden between the cases. The walls began to shed their skin as ten years of wooden arms were ripped from their proper placement. The area was a disaster zone and a few brave men and woman were all that was left to tell the tale.

It's a very sad occurrence to lose a bookstore. Especially one that has made such a powerful impact on the community. Patrons from all over would come to peruse the shelves for new releases and settle in the coffee shop with old classics. The smells of pages being turned and drinks being served gave the room a glow much like a home away from home. Everyone was always welcome through its doors. No matter who you were or who you wished you were, you were always welcome here.

The sounds of laughter filled the stock room as pallet after pallet of books came pouring through the gate. Opening each box was like opening Christmas morning, finding new stock to share with favorite customers and friends. Employees would gather in its doors and continue to enjoy each others company long after they had left their shift for the day. Not one person didn't have the other in their phone or connected to them online. Everyone loved each other. If their own families were not accepting or they needed someone in the worst of times, they knew that they would always have a family to go to here.

Now as the countdown began to its final day, the family would have to face the most difficult challenge of their lives. They would be forced to watch their beloved store be mangled, beaten, and tossed aside like a wave in the sea. Together they would endure tongue lashings that made lips curl and pick up the masses of litter left by the vultures who came to pick on the dead body's remains. They would cry many tears and serve as a shoulder too many to cry on.

No one would quite understand how these people felt. In fact, they only had each other in which to relate such a travesty. But to each other they would always remain faithful. To the feel of a hardback book, turning pages with your fingertips and sealing spots with a paper mark, they would remain faithful. To the smiles they shared, the joy of working in such a magical place, and the people they have encountered along the way that shaped their lives, they would remain faithful.

I will miss everything about you.

I will miss the little chime the time card machine made every time I clocked in and even more so when I clocked out for lunch.

I will miss the phones ringing off the hook and customers wanting 20 copies of Heaven is For Real.

I will miss the way the register pops open when a customer actually pays with cash.

I will miss the multiple Borders rewards cards and the really old ones that no longer scan.

I will miss listening to whatever we felt like on the overhead, even if not everyone loves Glee.

I will miss helping customers realize they need to read Harry Potter and then being there with them as they journey through each book.

I will miss running back to the stock room every time I hear the doorbell ring.

I will miss the rotating microwave and the comfy yellow couch I laid on when I was sick, tired or had a dislocated hip.

I will miss my locker right under someone else's locker which was never ever locked.

I will miss my work family. My work mom, my amazing friends, and listening to random people being serenaded by someone tall with shaggy hair.

And I will miss you Independent Reader...Oh how I loved you so. The way your shelves incased me. Like my own little world full of every book I'd ever read. I lined your walls with my favorite things and lured people into your pages so that they too can cry at the end of Where the Red Fern Grows. I babied you, kept you clean and raised you like a child. When they took you from me, I lost a part of my heart.

I love you all so much. I wrote this because I needed to let it all out. And I knew no one would understand but you.