Orin brightened when it seemed her dusky companion was not put off by the lingering skunk odor. If Sankara thought it was not so bad, then perhaps the smell was finally coming out of the shop! Orin had been working vigorously to salvage the place but had grown so used to the scent that she was not sure if it was going away, or if her sense of smell had just dulled completely. So, there was hope for her bookstore yet!
“Oh, that’s okay. It shouldn’t be a problem teaching you the alphabet. If you can draw then you already have the upper hand, you’ll learn the symbols easy,” she nodded her encouragement. Though they were already starting off good, for Sankara had a desire and drive to learn. The woman was eager and had confidence, and sometimes confidence was half the battle.
Orin disappeared down an aisle of shelving. She had not had time to organize all of the racks yet, but things were looking a lot better than when she first found them. Most of the books were satisfactorily dusted off, and the ones that had been destroyed by vermin had been cleared from the shelves and set in a nice pile for disposal. Though Orin did not like the idea, she supposed they could make good kindling for a cooking fire or for someone’s home. It would be a shame to burn them, but they were already useless thanks to pests and decay, and it was better to recycle them usefully than to keep letting them rot.
“Sure, I would love to hold onto it for you. It’ll be safe here. In fact, there was an old picture frame in the office upstairs… it might fit in that. Would you mind if I hung it on the wall?” Her footsteps echoed through the quiet bookstore as she moved down an aisle of children’s books, and soon she popped out of the shelving with a book in hand. She was wiping dust off the cover when Kara made her offer. Her eyes shot over to Sankara, her expression electric, and she almost dropped the book when she ran over to the woman’s side.
“Really? That would be awesome! I always run into trouble when I try to sketch something down in my journal before I forget what it looks like.” She threw her arms around Sankara, giving her a tight hug and almost whopping her with the book in the process.
“I’ll be right back, I’ll grab some paper.” She dropped the book down on the table in front of Sankara and disappeared up the stairs. The book was slender, and had big bright letters printed on the cover. The cover was a little warped but the color was still quite true to the day it was printed. Orin soon returned, flying down the steps two-by-two with a handful of paper, two pencils, and the picture frame.
She held up the frame, waving it at Kara as she set down the slightly yellowed but in tact pieces of paper. “Look, will it fit in this?”
5 points