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She played with her hair strand, then pushed it behind her fragile ears. She had hopes in her heart and twinkle in her eyes. Her face was bright and lit up, as if she had seen the guy whom she had been crushing since high school. Managing her skirt, she entered the room. It wasn't any ordinary room. It was her wonderland. It was her heaven. The smell of the unexplainable yanked her by her nose into the the small entrance. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was caught up in quite a predicament ,she did not know from where to begin. This 23 year old women had turned into a her younger self.She anyway looked younger her age, her wavy hair was tied up in loose bun, that made her look seedy. The beauty spot above her perfectly shaped lips drew attention to her smile. Her infectious smile was the only makeup she wore on her face. The first glimpse of the room made her joyous, It was crowded than what she had expected. With lighter paces she took her footsteps and adjusted her empty bag, which kept falling from her narrow shoulders.
As she Entered the room she couldn't believe her eyes, She took a deep breath,fiddled with her gold chain, pressed her lips and moved towards the counter. With hesitant voice she asked politely "where could I get the basket to keep the books". But her voice was drowned in the hustle of the book shoppers.Gathering a little courage and feeling sorry about disturbing the volunteer she repeated her query again, but this time only to be heard.The Curly hair lady behind the counter gave her look as-if-she-had-asked-her-kidney.But she called for someone and got her what she needed.The short guy in blue uniform bought her the basket. She held the basket as if she was holding a baby, with care.A minute later she was humming to the 'let it be' which was being played softly in the background. She moved forward the half dozen counters and came towards the map that would guide her towards the book sale. It was a maze full of books. Various genres were divided equally among the room. her eyes glided over to history, music, art, war, military and stopped wandering after she saw literature. She located the section and realized it was at the far right end of the room, paving her way among the uncles discussing about war to reaching towards kids who wanted coloring books .She smiled and made her way carefully with the basket in one hand and her empty bag in other.However she had to stop as the line couldn't move forward, everyone took their time to pick up their friends and she respected it. she stayed there for a minute or so, browsing carelessly through the Arts section. the sunlight that had managed to shine through the cracks of the old wooden hall, made her tiny nose pin shine on her sharp nose, which would have gone unnoticed otherwise.She drew her hand towards her face to avoid it, but gave in eventually. Her eyes changed color in sunlight,they appeared to be dark drown and watery, complimenting her rubicund skin.
She looked at the line and realized that now she could reach to the desired section, she hurried cause she never wanted to miss out on any book. this section was less crowded than the bestseller one. She placed her things down, pulled her t-shirt and started running her delicate fingers on the books curiously. She stopped, picked a book placed in the basket and carried out the task again.Reading the details and sniffing the old pages of the books every now and then, she looked around just to make sure nobody was noticing her do that. She did this till her basket was over flowing with 'Jane Eyre', 'Moby Dick' 'Wuthering heights' 'Ivanhoe' and many more. after she had filled her basket and browsed painstakingly every book they had to offer, she removed the only thing in her bag and sipped it. wiping those droplets of her head, she manged to push the basket all the way to the counter, almost kicking few people in the way. They didn't seem to mind, her hushed sorry, sugar coated with the soothing smile worked like an vanilla ice-cream topped with chocolate sauce on a sunny day.
She submitted her 18-19 books on the counter no. 3, to the man in yellow crocs. He smiled and weighed her books. The only part that she hated was paying for the books, actually paying for anything. As he was busy weighing those heavy books, a thought crossed her mind. "what if i steal the books and run away..." she smiled at this thought and realized it was too late. He gave her a pink bill, after opening the bill,for the first time in her life she was actually happy paying for it.She removed the crisp 500rs note from her bright yellow purse and gave it to the man on the counter, thanked him and left having one last look at this hall. Her happiness after this knew no bounds, this time her happiness was in bundle of books, big,small, yellow, brown, hardcover, paper back, neatly packed. The empty bag had now become extremely heavy and this terrible singer took her next steps humming, singing and swaying.
She reached home in the evening, still contemplating about which book she would read first. It had already become dark, carrying the load of almost 20 books, she reached her society. Her mind was still caught up, day dreaming about a personal library that she would love to have, about other beautiful little things. With the other step of thought, she tripped a stone and fell on her knees.Everything went blank for few seconds or so, her knees had started to bleed and watery eyes were filled with tears. It took her a while to get back on her feet. But she did, wiping the mud off her legs,she straightened her self up. And with baby footsteps she entered her house, still with books in her bag.Coming home she placed her bag on the chair and went to the washroom to wash her wound. After she had nursed her wound it started burning, it had faded her twinkling eyes and charming smile.After settling herself and fighting the pain she made coffee for herself, sipped it slowly picked up "Jane Eyre" from the depths of the bag, sat next to her window, placed her burning knee on a been bag and read "there was no possibility of taking a walk that day..." she looked at her wound, smiled and read further.
