Saturday 26 January 2013

250 Words: The Haberdashery of Thoughts and Ideas (2)

Within the shop looked like many of the second-hand book shops I had been in over the years.  There were shelves from floor to ceiling made from a variety of woods and a mishmash of different styles, from shelves attached straight to the wall to bookcases of different sizes and shapes.

Hanging from the ceiling and stuck on the shelf edges were the titles of different sections and areas: Fiction A-Z, Philosophy, History, Science, Religion and Theory were some I remember seeing in there that day.

Inside the front bay windows was a large, unattended desk piled high with books still to be sorted, a hefty tome for recording sales and the locked cash box that served as the cash register.

I was starting to think that this maybe wasn’t the place for me necessarily when I noticed that, at the back of the shop, there was another counter running across the width of the shop separating it from the area behind. An area full of further shelving, containing glass flasks filled with an assortment of coloured liquids.

My curiosity led me onwards and I was quickly standing at the counter staring beyond to this curious section at the back of the bookshop. I wondered, quite possibly out loud, what it was all about and, as if in response to my thoughts, an old man appeared before me and asked if I required help. When I replied in the affirmative he said, “Well, then I shall explain it to you…”

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