We're Not Just Writers {Bookshop Episode III}

{previous episode}

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Corey finished her burger before it got cold and dropped the wrapper into the trash. As she opened the door to leave the restaurant, she ran through her idea one more time. It was kind of a stupid idea. Still, Corey was feeling desperate, and this just might work.
  Rose was still outside the bookshop, carefully tracing the letters on the window with a wet rag. He looked surprised when Corey approached him.
  “Hey?” he said, and dropped his rag into the bucket of sudsy water. Corey looked at the sidewalk.
Yes, I am about to do this, she told herself. She looked up again.
  “I noticed that you blocked me,” Rose said. “Why?”
  Corey shrugged. “Because you’re weird,” she replied. “How’d you find me anyway?”
  “You take good pictures,” Rose stated, ignoring the question.
  “Just let me in,” Corey snapped. She should have ignored Rose and found Michael instead. She would never get anywhere at this rate.
  “What do you want that’s inside?” Rose queried. “I thought you didn’t read.”
  Corey’s thoughts flashed to the book on her nightstand. If she admitted to reading it, she would be trapped with Rose as a friend. Corey thought a sewer monster would be less annoying than him.
  “Nevermind, then,” she began. “I-” Then she stopped. If she lied and called Merida to come save her, she wouldn’t get a job. As much as she disliked Rose, she really needed a job.
  Rose moved towards the door. “You what?”
  Corey took a deep breath. “I- Are you hiring?”
  “Ha!” Rose exclaimed triumphantly, a grin spreading across his face. “I knew you’d come back! I know an unemployed artist when I see one.” Corey scowled.
  “I just want a job,” she said. “I don’t care about your unemployed artist senses.”
  “But you want to work here!” Rose countered. “Surely there’s somewhere else that would hire you? You must have some other motive.”
  Corey sighed. “Just finish the windows and let me in.” Rose relented, and Corey pushed the door open and walked inside. There were a few customers wandering around the shelves, all middle-aged women. Katelyn watched them from behind the cash register.
  “Corey!” she exclaimed, smiling warmly. “What can I do for you?”
  Corey rested her arms on the counter. “I was wondering if you had any jobs open.”
  Katelyn looked puzzled. “I’m sure we could find something,” she said. “Do you have any experience running the counter?” Corey nodded.
  “I don’t have my resume with me, but I’ve got a few jobs worth of experience.”
  “Well,” Katelyn said, “I’m busy at the moment, but if you can come back tomorrow at noon-ish, we’ll meet with Michael and discuss some conditions and possible positions for you.”
  Corey smiled gratefully. “Thanks.” She dug a sticky note and pen out of her purse and scribbled down her phone number. She handed the note to Katelyn, who stuck it on the counter.
  As she left the shop, she texted Merida: “Maybe getting a job at the bookshop!/?”
  The reply was instant. “What, with that creepy Rose dude?” Then, “U sure this is a good idea?”
  Corey looked up from her phone long enough to dodge a tree. “Idk,” she replied. “Dinner tomorrow n we can talk?”
  Corey spent the evening on the couch, reading the last two chapters of An Orphan Boy. The ending was satisfying. Rose, or rather, Richard, his fictional persona, had seen the world and settled down with the love of his life, and Corey was pretty sure his intelligence level had surpassed that of the real Rose. She still felt sympathetic towards Evelyn, his fictional love interest, for having to put up with him for the rest of her life.
  Having finished the book, Corey moved to her bed and fell asleep. Her dreams were made of slightly altered scenes from An Orphan Boy, where she was Evelyn and Rose was flirting with her, dressed in various nineteenth-century ball gowns. She was thankful to wake up and find herself alone in her room.
  She arrived at the bookshop at 12:15 the next day, with her camera around her neck for good measure. The bell above the door jingled as she entered the shop.
  “You got the job?” Rose asked her over his shoulder. He was busy taping up a sign that read, “25% OFF THROUGH FRIDAY.”
  “Dunno yet,” she replied. Rose might have said something else, but she ignored it.
  Both Katelyn and Michael were waiting for her in the back room.
  “How are you?” Michael greeted her. He motioned for her to sit down in a folding chair opposite him.
  “I’m good,” Corey answered automatically, fidgeting with her camera strap as she pulled the chair away from the table. Her knees brushed something solid underneath the long tablecloth, and although she was curious about what it was, she needed to focus on the interview.
  “I see you brought your camera,” Michael observed. “That’s what we want to talk to you about. See, we’ve been looking for a photographer.”
  “Oh?” Corey was confused. She didn’t think photography had much to do with running a bookstore. But, she remembered, if they were willing to pay her and put her name on things, it could be her big break as a professional.
  “Let me explain,” Michael continued. “We need a photographer because we aren’t just writers.”
Wait, what?
  Corey hoped she didn’t look alarmed. She should have known that something was up. She had just walked into something more than a bookshop. She crossed her fingers and prayed it wasn’t a gang, or a cult, or something else horrifically disturbing that she should probably tell the authorities about. The rational part of her pointed out that gangs and cults probably wouldn’t need someone skilled with a camera. Maybe it was just a joke, and they were going to tell her that they were also entrepreneurs, or parents, or that they secretly ran a lawn care business. No, none of this made sense.
  “I’m sorry?”
  “We’re time travelers,” Michael said. Corey’s jaw went slack.
  Her gaze flicked from Michael’s brown eyes to Katelyn’s cool green ones as she stammered, “You’re? Time? What?”
  Katelyn smiled. “We’re time travelers,” she explained calmly, her dark brown cheeks crinkling and forming a small smile. “We have a machine that allows us travel back in time, and we use it to conduct research for our stories.”
  Corey exhaled slowly. “You’re time travelers,” she repeated. Her brain screamed, “TIME TRAVEL! TIME TRAVEL! TIME TRAVEL!” She was too surprised to be skeptical.
  Katelyn nodded. “Yes.” At least it was only somewhat sketchy, and not completely illegal. She made a mental note to google if there were any laws regarding time travel.
  “Why did you need to tell me?” Corey heard herself ask.
  “We want you to take pictures for us, if that’s okay. Otherwise, you can just man the register while we’re gone.”
  “Sure,” Corey replied absentmindedly. She had a job. Her employers were time travelers. She might suddenly become a companion on the next season of Doctor Who.
  Then the door opened, and Rose bounced into the room. “How’s the interview?” he asked. This managed to snap Corey out of her daze. She glared at Rose.
  “She’s a little shocked,” Katelyn answered, “But it’s going well, all things considered.”
  “You’re going to be awesome,” Rose told Corey. “I can show you the place I would have lived! I want to take you on a tour of the world, even though it gets risky. Where do you want to go?”
  That sounded like a date. Corey didn’t want a date, she wanted a job. “I don’t know,” she said politely. “I’ll have work and stuff.”
  “Yeah, but we have to get you initiated, and steal you a camera and clothes and stuff.”
  Corey was confused. “I already have a good camera, though.”
  Rose grinned. “Not one from 1840, you don’t!”
  “What?” Corey didn’t understand what Rose was trying to say.
  “I said,” Rose began, but Katelyn interrupted.
  “We want you to go back in time and take pictures of things for setting and appearance references,” she said.
  “But if you have a time machine, why do you need me?” Corey asked. “Why don’t you just bring Da Vinci or someone to the present and have him write his autobiography?”
  “Sweetie, Da Vinci would keel over and die in the presence of Commodore PET, nevermind an iPhone 8,” Katelyn said. “I know it seems strange, but the more information we can absorb in one trip, the less trips we have to take, and the less risk there is to the business.”
  “What’s a Commodore PET?” Corey asked. Katelyn sighed.
  “Rose, I thought I asked you to recruit people who had a basic knowledge of history.”
  “You told me to find a photographer!” Rose countered. To Corey, he explained, “The Commodore PET was an early electronic computer. Not super cool as far as modern tech goes, but it’s way too advanced for someone who died before it was invented.”
  “Not to mention that it could completely alter the timeline and send us into a completely different future!” Katelyn added. “Time travel is a dangerous thing, especially when people from the past are involved. It’s like that saying, ‘Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.’”
  Corey nodded along, hoping that she hadn’t offended them with her lack of knowledge. This whole thing seemed too extravagant to be a lie, but too far out there to be completely true.
  “Well, I’m not exactly educated on the subject,” she said cautiously, “But have you ever tried to bring anyone to the present?”
  Rose nodded. “Yup, and you’re looking at him.” He winked at Corey, who winced. “I was born on December ninth, 1844.”
  Corey looked at him, dressed in blue jeans and a tee shirt sporting the logo for a 5K run. He didn’t seem very old fashioned.
  “What happened when you did that?” she asked, still looking at Rose.
  “Not much, as far as we can tell,” Katelyn replied. “Rose was only eight months old at the time, so it didn’t take much for him to adapt to a new time period.”
  “Before we get to the baby pictures, can I show her the time machine?” Rose asked, suddenly looking worried.
  “Go ahead.” Katelyn started to move things off the table.
  Corey slid her chair back as Rose pulled the tablecloth off to reveal…a plywood box.
  “This is the time machine!” Rose said proudly. Corey squinted at it.
  It was no Tardis, or Delorean, or Time Tunnel, or anything of value, for that matter. It looked like a cheap doghouse.
  “Here, let me show you.” Rose flipped a latch on the side and a door opened. Inside was an engine in a metal case, some dials and gauges, and a booster seat. “Wanna sit in it?”
  This was a joke, Corey decided. How dumb did they think she was? Maybe she had fallen for it until now, but this was too much.
  “No thanks,” she replied.
  “I’m so excited to have you on the team,” Katelyn said. “It does get a little crowded with three people in it, but we’ll finally have real photos and not just my terrible sketches!”
  Corey forced a grin. “When do I start?”
  “Tomorrow, if you’re up for it,” Katelyn replied. “We can always use a hand. We’re closed on Sundays, and you can have Thursdays off, too, if you need.”
  “Alright!" Corey replied, starting to sneak towards the door. "I’ll be there.”

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It is pouring down rain right now.
Anyway, how are you liking the series so far? Did you expect the twist?
I'm already started on the next part, so hopefully it won't be as long before I post it! I seriously procrastinated this part, and I'm very sorry about that. I promise I won't take an entire month next time.
I'm working on a drawing of Corey at the moment, so I'll probably add that in with the next episode.
By the way, I'm going to be at camp for a week without my laptop, so I won't be reading any posts or replying to comments until Friday or Saturday. I might make a post about it afterward, if something interesting happens.
Have a good last week of Pride month! (I care about it a lot.)