MidReal Story
Whispers of the Rain: A Bookstore's Revival
Scenario: It's an unassuming bookstore on a street corner with a single clerk who runs the bookstore every day, but few people come in. One day, when it is raining heavily, a pretty girl notices the bookstore in the rain and runs in to hide from the rain, and then wanders around the bookstore. Without realizing it, she found a book she had been looking forward to for a long time!
Create my version of this story
I’ve been working at this bookstore for as long as I can remember.
It’s my second home and the place I feel the most comfortable.
On a quiet street corner, it sits modestly, its exterior nothing to shout about, a big contrast to what you see inside.
The sign above the door just says “Books” and that’s what we sell, nothing more, nothing less.
People come in and out of this store every single day, but they hardly even look at it.
I do, though.
I look at it every time I walk through the door, and I think it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.
The books that fill our shelves are my pride and joy.
This store holds a very special place in my heart and I love so many things about it—the smell of the paper, the rustling sound of pages turning, how the light comes through the windows and casts a golden glow over everything—but most of all, I love the silence.
It’s the kind of silence that wraps around you like a warm blanket, keeping out all the noise from the outside world.
My days are usually spent with my nose buried in a book or answering customer questions about what we have to offer.
People come from all over to browse our shelves and sometimes they ask for recommendations or do some light chitchat with me.
Mostly though, they spend their time silently looking for their next read.
We have regulars too, who come in multiple times a week to pick up something new.
I like to think of them as my friends.
Some of them are more talkative than others, but all of them are very dear to me.
One of them is a man named Daniel Evans.
He has been coming here for years now and we hit it off immediately.
He loves books just as much as I do and he’s one of those people who you can have an entire conversation with just by looking at his eyes.
He has messy hair and big glasses that always slide down his nose, and he’s a bit awkward, which makes him even more endearing to me.
I would even go so far as to call him a friend, but I don’t have many of those.
Actually, I don’t have any friends, but I have the people who come into this store every single day and somehow, they fill that hole in my heart that’s been empty for so long.
I open the door to the shop and walk inside, breathing in the familiar smell that greets me every single morning: paper, ink, wood, and a little bit of dust.
It’s almost intoxicating to me, the way it fills my lungs and makes me feel like I’m home.
I walk up to the counter where Mr.
Jenkins is already waiting for me with a cup of coffee in hand.
“Mornin’, Emily,” he says to me with a small smile on his face, handing me the cup, “How was your weekend?”
“It was fine,” I answer him with a small smile.
I take the cup from him and sit down on my usual stool behind the counter.
“You know me: just spent most of it curled up with a good book.” He laughs and shakes his head.
“Of course.
I wouldn’t expect anything else from you.”
I smile and start sipping my coffee while he fills me in on what he needs me to do today.
It’s always the same things: make sure all the new orders are put out on display, dust off the shelves and windowsills, and make sure all the books are organized.
After that, there’s not too much to do except answer any questions people might have and ring them up when they’re ready to buy something.
I spend most of my time reading or working on my own stories while I wait for customers to come.
Today is no different.
Usually, we have a few people come in pretty early to pick up some new orders or browse around a little bit.
But today is different.
Today is a Monday and it’s gloomy outside.
It looks like it might rain and not many people want to go out shopping when it’s raining.
I don’t mind, really.
I like it better when it’s quiet in here.
It gives me more time to work on my own things and read without any distractions.
But I love it when the store is full too.
I love seeing people come in and out of our doors all day long and watching them pick out different stories that they’re going to take home and enjoy.
I love hearing their conversations and smelling their coffee as it wafts through the air.
It’s all so magical to me…even though it’s not quite as busy as it used to be a few years ago.
You see, bookstores are kind of a dying breed these days.
With everything going digital, fewer and fewer people are choosing to buy actual books anymore.
It makes me sad to see our store not doing so well because I love it so much and I think my boss does too.
He started this store as a passion project about 20 years ago and has put so much effort into it over the years, but now there’s not as much foot traffic anymore and he’s considered closing down a few times.
I don’t really know what I would do if he did; this place means everything to me and I can’t imagine it not being here anymore.
So I keep my fingers crossed every day that we’ll get more customers and be able to stay open for at least a little while longer.
Even if I have to cut back my hours again or take a pay cut, I would rather do that than lose this place for good.
The bell above the door rings and I look up from my book to see who came in next.
It’s just Mr.
Johnson, one of our regulars, who comes in every Monday afternoon like clockwork.
Everything is as it should be and I smile as he walks over to his favorite section and gets lost in another story for a while.
I love coming here every day and doing the same thing in the same order without ever having to think about it.
It’s like a routine and I find comfort in that routine every single day when I come into work and open up the store and then again when I come back and close it at night.
I come in every morning and turn on all the lights and sweep the floors before I even take off my jacket or start up the coffee pot in the backroom.
I like having everything looking clean and organized before we open up for business and I always want to make sure that everything is exactly where it should be when customers come in looking for something specific.
I even stop and take an extra minute to check each shelf before I leave for the night and go home for dinner just to make sure that nothing has been disturbed or knocked over by one of our few customers or other employees that have been in and out all day long.
It seems like a lot of extra effort for something that sometimes feels like a lost cause anyway, but I’m still holding out hope that one day somebody will walk through those doors and find exactly what they were looking for when they weren’t even looking for anything at all.
I was lost in my thoughts when I heard the first drops of rain hit against the windows and I looked up and out and saw that it was raining outside.
The sky had gone from bright and sunny to dark and gloomy and I’m sure that’s what had been making me feel so contemplative and introspective today and it was still raining and the first few drops were hitting against the glass with a soft pinging noise like it was trying to get my attention but nothing else was happening at all and so I turned back to the computer screen and tried to focus again on what I had been reading about before I was so rudely interrupted by the rain.
I have been reading a lot about different ways to get people into the store more often because even though we still have a few regulars that come in almost every day I don’t think we get nearly as much business as we could if people just knew that we were here and I have been thinking about different ways to get people interested in more classics because it seems like most of our regulars come in and buy whatever is new and the rest of our inventory just sits on the shelves waiting for somebody to come in and find it and sometimes it feels like it will just sit there forever.
The rain started coming down harder and it sounded like somebody was throwing pebbles at the windows and then it was like somebody was throwing small rocks at them instead before finally sounding like somebody was throwing bricks at them as my mind started wandering again and I listened to the sound of cars driving by on the street outside as they splashed through puddles of rainwater.
At first, the sound of the rain was a gentle pitter-patter against the glass that almost seemed to lull me into a relaxed state of mind but then it started coming down harder and the sounds of the cars driving by got louder and then finally the rain seemed to be coming down in sheets like a waterfall falling over the roof and crashing on the pavement below.
I stopped what I was doing for a second and watched from the window as the street outside turned into a fast-moving river of water that swirled around in circles before disappearing into the drains.
The wind picked up suddenly and blew even harder against the front of the shop, making me worry about the sign that Daniel had helped me hang this summer, but when I looked back out at the street corner the sign was still there, swinging back and forth in the wind, but still hanging on just fine.
I watched for a moment longer as the wind blew harder against the umbrella of the pretty girl who was still standing outside, spinning around in circles with her arms stretched out at her sides while she danced around with a bright smile on her face.
I watched her for a moment longer, her youthful energy lifting my spirits slightly despite my concern about how hard the wind was blowing against the front of the shop.
The pretty girl looked like she couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, maybe even younger than that, with long brown hair that draped down across her shoulders and covered her back in such a way that made me think she had to be cold even though she didn’t seem to mind at all.
Her colorful umbrella twirled with her as she danced around with an infectious joy that seemed to defy the gloom of the day.
The storm clouds were so dark overhead now that it looked like evening outside even though it was only midafternoon but that didn’t seem to bother her at all because she just kept on dancing, spinning around in circles with her arms stretched out at her sides while she laughed and danced around in circles.
The wind blew harder against her umbrella this time and almost flipped it inside out before finally ripping it away from her hand, sending it flying across the street.
She stopped spinning around for a moment and looked down at her hand with an expression of shock on her face before finally turning to run after her umbrella.
I stopped watching for a moment but then caught myself still looking out the window at the street corner so I went back to my work and tried not to think about her.
I heard the sound of the front door opening and closing and wondered if she came inside because I hadn’t heard it open and then I thought that maybe she was cold and needed to warm up for a bit, so I kept working and tried not to think about her for a while.
After a few minutes, the wind died down and the rain slowed to a light drizzle before stopping completely.
The sun came out again and shined through the clouds before disappearing behind them again, only to come out and shine for a little while longer before disappearing completely and leaving the sky filled with clouds that were almost black before turning dark blue again.
The sun came out one more time and shined for a little while longer before it disappeared behind the clouds for the last time and left the sky looking almost black and grey, just like it did before the storm started.
I heard children laughing outside and looked out the window just in time to see them running around in circles on the sidewalk with their arms stretched out at their sides while they danced around in circles with big smiles on their faces.
The pretty girl was with them now, dancing around with her arms stretched out at her sides and spinning around while she laughed and danced around with an infectious joy that seemed to lift everyone’s spirits after such a heavy downpour of rain.
The children ran around for another minute or so before running off across the street and leaving the pretty girl alone again.
She danced around on her own for a few minutes longer before finally stopping to catch her breath.
I watched from the window as she stopped dancing and turned in a slow circle with her arms stretched out at her sides.
The sun was coming out again now, shining through the clouds and casting long shadows across the pavement that made me think of autumn even though it was still summer outside.
The pretty girl looked up at the sky and held out her arms for another moment or so before lowering them back down to her sides with a contented sigh.
She looked around for another moment or so before opening her umbrella to check for any holes that might have formed during her impromptu dance in the rain.
She didn’t seem to find anything wrong with it though because she turned it upside down to shake off any water she might have collected before folding it back down into its original shape and wrapping it up in her scarf to keep it dry until she needed to use it again.
She looked up at the sky one more time before holding out her arms for another moment or so.
This time she stayed that way for another minute or so before eventually lowering her arms back down to her sides with a satisfied sigh.
She reached down to adjust her scarf before walking off down the sidewalk with a big smile on her face as the sun came out one last time to shine through the clouds before disappearing behind them again for good.
I watched her walk off down the sidewalk for a few more minutes before finally shaking my head to clear it of all thoughts of her and going back to my work.
It was silly of me to keep watching her after she left but there was something about her that made me wish she would come inside even though I knew that she wouldn’t because she seemed content just standing outside the front door in all that rain as if she were waiting for someone even though no one ever comes here except for that one regular customer who comes in once in a while to browse our collection of romance novels and even then he never buys anything either unless it’s something new that we just got in stock like that one book that he bought last week when he came in to browse our collection of romance novels and found something new that he hadn’t seen before.
I had been so busy thinking about how much I wanted that pretty girl to come inside that I almost didn’t hear the sound of the front door opening behind me until I heard someone say good morning in a soft, sweet voice that was strangely familiar.
I turned around to find an elderly woman standing at the front counter.
She had short grey hair and wore glasses that made her eyes look huge and watery.
She smiled at me through a pair of thin lips that were painted with a bright red lipstick and asked me if we had any new books in stock.
I greeted her warmly and led her over to our collection of romance novels where she spent an hour or so browsing through them while I watched from my spot at the front counter.
She eventually found a book that she liked and brought it back up to the front counter where she paid for it before leaving without saying another word.
I waited until I was sure that she was really gone before I went back to my bookkeeping duties up at the front counter where I wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone unless someone else came into the store but no one else did until I heard a faint noise coming from somewhere towards the back of the store where all of our poetry books are shelved in a small corner.I got up from my seat and went to go see what was going on because I thought maybe there was something wrong with one of our bookshelves and we needed to fix it right away before it became a problem.
When I got there I couldn’t see anything wrong with any of our bookshelves but I did see something else that caught my attention—a pretty girl was standing at our front entrance, looking inside as if she were trying to decide whether or not she wanted to come inside.
I stood there watching her for a while before I finally mustered up enough courage to go over and greet her in case she needed help finding something.
I went over to talk to her but before I could say anything she stepped inside and quickly moved past me, giving me a slight nod of acknowledgment as she passed by without saying anything at all.
I watched in amazement as she headed straight over to our small collection of poetry books in one corner of the store where she stopped to browse through them as if she were looking for something specific.
She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and tight blue jeans that clung to her legs like a second skin, making them look long and lean.
Her long brown hair hung down over her shoulders in loose waves and framed her pretty face in a way that made her look even more beautiful than before.
I couldn’t stop staring at her as she continued to browse through our collection of poetry books while I stood there watching from a safe distance away where she wouldn’t see me.
I felt guilty for staring at her like that but I couldn’t help myself.
There was just something about her that was so captivating and intriguing that I couldn’t stop staring at her.
She looked so pretty and sweet standing there in that corner of the store with a small smile on her face as she carefully examined each of our poetry books one by one as if she were trying to decide which one to buy and take home with her.
I wondered what kind of poetry she liked to read and what kind of poet she liked to read it from.
Maybe she liked to read love poems written by famous poets like Pablo Neruda or Rumi, or maybe she liked to read dark and gloomy poems written by lesser known poets who wrote about things like death and loss and grief.
I hoped that she liked to read love poems because they were my favorite and I thought that they would be her favorite too since they were so beautiful and sweet and romantic and perfect for someone as pretty and sweet and romantic as her.
I continued to watch her from my safe distance away until I noticed that her hair was wet and her clothes were damp and I realized that it must have started raining again while I was busy doing my bookkeeping duties up at the front counter where I wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone unless someone else came into the store but no one else did except for that one customer who came in earlier to browse through our collection of romance novels before leaving without buying anything.
It may have been raining for a long time, I don't know. But I suddenly realized that the girl was pretty, the kind of beauty that lasts to be appreciated, not particularly stunning or heavily made up, a kind of natural beauty that melts into the water
I knew that I should have gone to close the door and pull down the shade before the rain could come inside and get everything wet but I didn’t want to leave the girl all by herself up there in the corner of the store with no one else around.
So instead I stayed where I was and continued to watch her as she carefully examined each of our poetry books until she finally finished looking through all of them and put them back on the shelf where they belonged before walking over to the fiction shelves across from the poetry shelves to see if there was anything there that interested her.
I watched her as she carefully examined each of our fiction books, taking them down off the shelf and looking at their covers and reading their blurbs on the back before putting them back on the shelf where they belonged and taking down another book to read its cover and blurb, too.
She looked so cute and adorable with her small smile, like a little girl who had just gone to the library to get her very first library card, so excited to read all of the books in the library that she didn’t know where to start.
She looked so happy and carefree, too, like nothing bad could ever happen to her, like nothing bad had ever happened to her, like nothing bad would ever happen to her.
It was so sweet to see because it made me feel so happy that I almost clapped my hands in delight but I didn’t because I didn’t want to scare her away from my store.
I thought that it would be nice to have a pretty girl like her as a customer in my store because I didn’t have very many customers who came into my store to buy books from me, so I didn’t want to do anything to scare her away from my store before she could even buy anything from me.
That’s when it occurred to me that maybe I should go over there and ask her if there was anything that I could help her find as she continued to browse through our collection of fiction books while I stood there watching from my safe distance away where she wouldn’t see me while I waited for her to say something to me first, even though I knew that she probably wouldn’t because most of my customers who came into my store didn’t say anything to me unless they had to.
I watched as the pretty girl in front of me ran around the counter at the back of my store to look at our selection of poetry books, where she stayed for a couple of minutes before she put a book back on the shelf and walked back around the counter at the back of my store to look at our selection of fiction books, where she stayed for a couple of minutes more before she walked back around the counter at the back of my store again and approached me at the front of my store with a bright smile on her face, like a little girl who was so excited about what she got for Christmas that she just couldn’t wait to tell someone how happy she was about what she got for Christmas.
“Can I help you with something?”
I asked as soon as the pretty girl in front of me stopped in front of me with a big smile on her face, not sure what else to ask her since I didn’t know what else to ask her other than if I could help her with something while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something that I could do for her while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should ask her instead while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should ask her instead just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead while I waited for her to say something to me first just in case if there was something else that I should be doing instead while I waited for her to say something else to me instead of staring at her with a big dumb grin on my face.
“Yes,” she said with a big smile on her face, like a little girl who was so happy about what she had just gotten for Christmas that she wanted to tell someone how happy she was about what she got for Christmas, “I’m looking for a book called Myths of Rain and Water.
Do you have it in stock?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, trying not to sound too disappointed because I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t want her in my store just because I didn’t have the book in stock, “but we don’t have that book in stock right now.”
“Oh,” she said with a small frown on her face, like a little girl who had just opened up a present at Christmas only to find out that it wasn’t the present that she had been expecting, “that’s too bad.”
“I can special order it for you if you would like,” I offered because I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t want her in my store just because I didn’t have the book in stock, “and you can come back next week to pick it up or I can have it shipped directly to your home if you would prefer.”
“That would be nice,” she said with a big smile on her face, like a little girl who had just opened up a present at Christmas only to find out that it was the present that she had been expecting, “but I don’t live around here.Would you mind if I gave you my phone number so that you can call me when it comes in instead?”
“I can take your phone number,” I said, trying not to sound too excited because I didn’t want her to think that I was only doing this because I liked her, “and I will call you when the book comes in.”
“Thank you,” she said with a big smile on her face, like a little girl who had just gotten what she really wanted for Christmas, “I really appreciate your help.” She wrote down her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it over to me.
“I will call you when the book comes in,” I said, trying not to sound too excited because I didn’t want her to think that I was only doing this because I liked her, “thank you for coming in today.” I watched as the pretty girl left the bookstore, like a little girl who had just opened up all of her presents at Christmas and was now going home with one of them in tow, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had just lost something special.
I should have asked her if there was anything else that I could help her with, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want our conversation to end so soon.
I should have asked her if there were any other books that she would like me to special order for her since she liked Myths of Rain and Water so much, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want her to think that I was only trying to get her phone number so that I could call her up all of the time.
I should have asked her if she wanted me to wrap up anything for her since it was raining outside, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want our conversation to end so soon.
Even if we didn’t have any books in stock, I should have told her about some other books or authors that she might have liked based on what she had been looking at, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want our conversation to end so soon.
Even if we didn’t have any books in stock, I should have encouraged her to stay longer so that she could browse some more, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want our conversation to end so soon.
Even if we didn’t have any books in stock, I should have encouraged her to come back some other time when we did have more books in stock, but I was so happy about having the pretty girl in my store and having the pretty girl actually talk to me that I didn’t want our conversation to end so soon.
It would have been nice if she had stuck around a little bit longer so I could have asked her those questions, and she wouldn’t have felt like I was being too pushy by asking them, but she probably would have left anyway because there wasn’t really anything interesting about my quiet, unassuming little bookstore, and I probably would have ended up scaring her off because there wasn’t anything interesting about me either.
The coffee shop across the street had Wi-Fi and a wide selection of freshly baked scones, muffins, and cookies, and I knew that it was much more popular with the younger crowd than my quiet, unassuming little bookstore because I had made the trip over there many times, especially when I needed a break from work or when I had a few minutes before I needed to open up the store in the morning, and I never saw very many people browsing through the books, even though they were all displayed right by the front entrance where everyone who entered the store would have seen them.
It made me think about what I was doing wrong and how I could get more people into the store, but I couldn’t really come up with anything except for a few more ideas for book displays, so I closed up for the day because there wasn’t anything else for me to do, and there wasn’t going to be anything else for me to do until tomorrow morning when I would come back in and open up the store again for another day of business.
I thought about the pretty girl and I thought about how she was standing there in the rain and how she was asking me if we had any copies of Myths of Rain and Water in stock, and I thought about how she had said “thank you” when she left, so I knew that she was a nice person, and I thought about how she was standing there all alone and how she was so quiet and so soft spoken, so I knew that she was probably just as lonely as I was.
I was just about ready to pack up my stuff and go home for the day when Daniel came in through the front entrance like he always did, and he said “Hi” like he always did with a big smile on his face.
Daniel was a man in his thirties who wore glasses and had messy hair.
He was a bookworm who loved reading so much that he was practically made out of books, and he always came in at least once every week or two weeks because he wanted me to special order a new book for him even though he could have easily ordered it online or bought it at some other store, but he kept coming back because he liked talking with me when he came in, and he knew that I liked talking with him too.
