#63: BookStore

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Shelby had taken to riding the unicycle exclusively. He was also wearing a trench coat because of the cool weather. The hems of the coat brushed the ground as he glided along. No one gave him a second glance. No one knew he was disabled. He could get used to this.

There were a number of reasons he liked it. That was just one.

He visited the nearby bookstore. One of it’s attractions to Shelby, other than it’s location, was that it had a coffeeshop inside. The next large book store, much less one with a coffee shop, was over an hour’s bus ride across town. Shelby wasn’t particularly fond of riding public transit so he didn’t even consider going to any of the big chains.

“Oops...sorry about that. Excuse me. Sorry...sorry.” Shelby listened sadly, as another person in a wheel chair repeatedly apologized as he bumped people, shelves and tables. Shelby could relate. That had been him a month ago.

Elvira was livid.

“Why do the micro-encelphathic sub-sapient neurological degenerate off spring of coelenterates put stuff in the middle of the aisles?” she asked. “Isn’t that where people are supposed to walk?”

“Such harsh words. You mean the managers?” Shelby asked innocently, well aware that a manager was within hearing distance. “Oh I’m sure it wasn’t their fault. It was probably Corporate. That’s always the excuse. Still...I didn’t think this was a chain store. It does make things difficult doesn’t it?”

They spoke loud enough for other shoppers to hear too. The other patrons of the bookstore had initially thought it was cute that the old, white bearded man in the long trench coat had an animatronic dragon puppet sitting on his shoulder and that they were discussing the condition of the bookstore.

It had to be a puppet. There were no such things as dragons...were there?

Some of the book buyers had thought it even more adorable, but indefinably alarming when the puppet hovered about like a humming bird. They weren’t sure what to think when it said things like that though.

On the one hand, stuff in the Isles did make it hard to walk.

On the other hand....well they weren’t sure. Stores always did that. The store management seemed to take great pleasure in making the shopping experience as difficult as possible.

On the gripping hand the shoppers found thinking for themselves to be a frightening new concept. It flew in the face of all their schooling and what they were told by the public media. No one had told them what to think about this problem.

It was so confusing.

The book store managers weren’t really certain what most of the words the puppet was using meant but they were pretty sure it wasn’t very complimentary....to them. Perhaps it was a form of reverse psychology. They hadn’t decided whether to be flattered or offended. No one had told them what to think either.

It was so confusing.

“ Ooops. I’m so sorry.” The poor man said again, as the corner of his wheel chair caught an in-aisle book display. The results weren’t pretty.

“Here...let me help pick that up.” He attempted to help clean up the mess.

“That’s perfectly ok.” a store manager had appeared and said through clenched teeth. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Joseph, clean this mess up and be quick about it” the store manage said to one of his employees.

“Do you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee?” Shelby asked the guy in the wheelchair. He’d quietly approached the scene of carnage.

The man turned toward Shelby’s voice and automatically looked up...over Shelby’s head. Shelby had retracted his unicycle’s mono-strut. He was at eye level.

The young man adjusted his gaze to look at Shelby and said in disgust. “ Yes. Please. I need a cup of coffee.”

‘Coming right up then.’ Shelby said. “would you like me to push or would you rather propel by hand?”

“Thank you for asking.” the vet, he was obviously a young disabled vet, replied. “I’d normally want to do it myself but I’ve knocked over enough stuff today haven’t I? If you would please I’d be grateful.”

Shelby extended the suspension strut to normal height and positioned himself behind the wheel chair. As they made their way precariously back to the coffeeshop Elvira landed on the arm rest of the wheelchair. To the young vet’s credit he didn’t jump...much.

“I’m going to make you an offer you might not want to refuse.” Shelby said. “I’m going to let you train my dragon.”

Elvira smiled.

The vet did jump then. Elvira had a disturbingly large number of teeth. Fangs too.

---

Shelby pushed the wheel chair to an empty table in the coffeeshop. He stopped and removed two of the chairs then settled in. He didn’t need a chair either. He’d lowered the suspension strut and locked it to the proper height. He was eye to eye with his table mate and as steady as if he’d been sitting on a rock. The unicycle didn’t so much as quiver.

The two ordered drinks. Shelby ordered a large cup of coffee as did the vet. They wanted coffee...just coffee...and they wanted it Black. That seemed to confuse the servers. From their expressions Shelby thought they might have actually been shocked. They certainly didn’t approve. Apparently most of their customers drank some combination of chocolate, cream, lots of sugars, and caramel, with a bare touch of coffee. Shelby saw no reason to do that. When he was drinking coffee that’s what he wanted....not a liquid candy bar. The young vet concurred.

“You know...I could really use a book.” Shelby said. “ That WAS why I came here tonight, after all. I need me some comfort reads. I’ve had a stressful week. How about you?”

“Yup. Sux to be a reader with nothing new to read doesn’t it?” The young man said, getting into the swing of things.

“Yeah. Doesn’t it just?” Shelby replied” but the fools who run this place have erected barriers just to make things difficult.”

“Oh my, oh my.” Elvira said. She hovered between the two men. “How bout if I were to do the browsing for ya’ll? This old fart made me to be a kind of a flying seeing eye dog, with hands. That way you two lard asses won’t have to risk the racks.”

Meanwhile he and Elvira were communicating at the speed of thought. They could do that. They both lived in the same brain. A plan was devised...and implemented.

“You can do that?” The young man asked Elvira, forgetting that he was speaking to a puppet, or so he thought.

“She certainly can.” Shelby said as he removed a plain gold colored necklace from a pocket. He’d decided to carry a few of them for just this type of occasion. Marketing.

The young man looked at the necklace chain. He had damn good vision. He saw the label right away.

Dragon-Force

“ This is the controller. You have guest privileges. Kinda cute huh?” Shelby asked him. “ I dreamed it up myself.”

“YOU dreamed it up?” Elvira playfully nagged him mind to mind.

“Dragon Force?” the Vet said.

“Marketing.” Shelby said “Gotta call it something. This gimmick will help. The simplest thing that it can do is let you link into the loop as an observer. Put the chain over your head and you can see out of the eyes of my dragon. The necklace will sting. Don’t worry. It’s taking a DNA sample to identify you as an authorized user. Are you ready for some BOOKS?”

Elvira was just gone. She’d flown across the room near the ceiling. She had covered the shortest distance to the Science Fiction area, ignoring the aisles. Shelby just knew that the young feller was a SF reader. SF was a vaccination against future shock. Anyone else would have freaked out.

Upon her arrival to the stacks Elvira hovered and slowly drifted up and down the aisles. She scanned the racks raising and lowering from the bottom to the top shelf. She had started at the “A’s” so reached Alan Dean Foster right away. She stopped. The bookstore had a new title that Shelby hadn’t seen. Shelby had read the Tar-Ayim-Krang and liked it. The new book, to him, was entitled “For Love of Mother-Not”...hmm. Interesting. A small flying dragon graced the cover. Elvira removed the book, using her front paws like hands, opened it and scanned the introduction..

“That looks interesting.” Shelby, and the Vet, were viewing the book through Elvira’s eyes. “what do you think? Worth a shot?”

“Oh yeah” he said “I’m a big Larry Niven fan. I read the Tar-Ayim-Krang, too. I’ve been following Pip and Flinx.”

“Me too.” Shelby said ‘I hope they have more copies, I want one for myself.”

Elvira closed the book then turned to leave...only to find herself face to face with a teen age boy.

“Cool.” the boy said “Pip is reading the Common Wealth Series.“

“Just checking for accuracy” Elvira said to the boy. “Nothing to be concerned about.”

She flew back to the coffeeshop carrying the book. The boy was left standing flatfooted with his mouth hanging open.

“That worked out well.” Shelby said. “I think we have a solution to your problem.”

“Huh? he said.

“Of course we do.” Elvira replied.

After that Elvira flew up and down the racks, high and low, looking for something interesting. On occasion the men sitting at the table would see something and tell her. She would stop, hover, remove the book and read a bit.

More than once a customer turned a corner to see the dragon hovering, like a big humming bird or a bee, reading a book. Often as not the older ones would turn tail and run. It might not have helped that Elvira had taken to wearing reading glasses. She thought it made her look more “librarian” and less threatening..

Not.

The kids were unaffected. They thought it was a hoot.

Meanwhile...Shelby and the vet were sitting in the Coffee Shop, drinking gallons of coffee.....discussing books.

They were having a marvelous time. Neither one got out much. Neither one had been with people much due to their injuries. This was good for the both of them.

It was a good system. It certainly beat trying to navigate the narrow stacks in a wheelchair. Shelby had commandeered an adjacent table. The table was soon stacked high with books.

They each took sacks of books home that day.

“Keep the necklace” Shelby told him. “It’ll show you what I have to offer. It has a virtual catalogue...and ‘stuff’. Consider it to be a sales pamphlet. If you see something you want come on down. There’s an interactive map that will bring you right to my door. If you decide against it...well you have a necklace.”

On the way back to the apartment Shelby muttered. “It looks like I have another product line to make”.

“What would that be?” Elvira asked as if she already didn’t know.

“Dragons” Shelby said.” I’ve been considering it for some time. Tele-operated service robots. Eyes, ears and hands for the disabled. Might as well be in the shape of small dragons, like you. It’s getting to be my trademark”

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The Next Episode will be
#64: Pill-Bug Cart
The Previous Episode was
#62: MonoWheel
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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I'm

@everittdmickey
.
I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
I have books on Amazon too.
Sometimes I also comment on the news

Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.