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A bead of sweat rolled down Vivi’s forehead. She wiped at her brow with the back of her hand, not slowing her walk. The sooner she could get to the Tome Tomb bookstore, the better.
By noon, the Texas sun was already beating down more fiercely than even Vivi could stand it. Different buildings and houses she walked by had opted for closed doors and air conditioning today instead of propping open their doors in hopes of cool breezes. The few people she saw outside were completely focused on tasks like watering plants and repairing things so they could get back in as soon as possible.
Vivi always ran cold, preferring to wear sweaters when other folks (Arthur) wore t-shirts, but even this heat made her want to take off her scarf for once.
Clutching the strap of her tote bag close, she picked up the pace and walked up the sidewalk to the entrance of the Tome Tomb bookstore. Air conditioning was a must in there to keep the books in good shape, and today she was grateful for it. As she dug into her blue tote for her keys, she became more aware of the specter quietly floating behind her, the heat from him rolling towards her and keeping the air hot even in the shade of the store awning.
Between investigations, Vivi often came in on days when the store was closed to log notes after the Mystery Skulls’ trips and to scour recent forum posts and news articles for future ones. Chloe and Duet were fine with it so long as she put everything away afterwards. And so long as she brought back souvenirs from her trips.
All of this was pretty much routine by now. Bringing the ghost- rather, bringing Lewis to keep her company was definitely new. It had actually been Arthur’s idea.
“Take him over to the manga section,” the mechanic had said before work that morning. The bags under his eyes were finally starting to fade a bit, and he was smiling as he nursed his coffee. “He’ll know what to do.”
Vivi didn’t really get it. She was initially excited about the ghost, seeing it in the parking lot in the middle of all the weird stuff happening with Mystery and the tree lady. But after hearing about how he’d almost killed Arthur, which Arthur only stuttered out after she cornered him, she was angry. How dare he almost kill one of her best friends?
She’d started yelling at the ghost, stalking towards him with her bat until Arthur jumped in front of her, saying things were okay now. She huffed and turned away, opting to help Mystery with his injuries. She still kept her bat close and her muscles never unclenched. She remembered what happened when she decided to spare the tree lady.
A few days after their return and recovery, the ghost quietly moved in with them. Vivi was more tired and wary than angry now, deciding to trust Arthur’s weirdly good intuition that had indeed saved their butts a few times before. Even Mystery had taken to Lewis quickly, despite the fact that he preferred to stick close to only Vivi most days.
Weirdly enough, Arthur seemed to be getting better in the ghost’s presence. Still anxious, but not as skittish as he had been. Which was kind of weird considering his almost-killer lived with them. Seeing him smiling and his health improving, Vivi couldn’t help but trust Arthur about bringing Lewis with her for the afternoon.
Vivi finally grabbed hold of the keys that were sitting at the bottom of her bag, bringing them out and flipping to the correct one for the store. Before putting the key in, Vivi whirled around on the ghost.
“Okay, mister,” she pointed the key directly at his chest. “Absolutely no ghost fires in here. Tempo needs its bookstore!”
Lewis put his hands up in surrender. His hair popped a couple times in shock, but he quickly patted the flames down with his hands. He looked at her and gave her a shaky thumbs-up. No flames. Got it, he seemed to say.
Satisfied, Vivi turned around again and put the key in the lock, turning it until she heard a click. A soft chime rang out as she opened the door, holding it open for Lewis to drift through. After Lewis came through, she closed the door and locked it, so no one would mistake the shop for being open. She then flipped a light switch next to the door, turning on a collection of fairy lights strung throughout the store and creating some dim lighting.
The store was small with wall to wall bookshelves. A few bookshelves were in the center for smaller or featured sections with small displays on top. The counter was in the back right corner, complete with a cash register, a stand of laminated bookmarks folks could purchase on their way out, and a box of books shoved to the side to be unpacked next time the shop was open.
Vivi set her bag on the countertop and flipped a switch on the wall. The light above the counter popped on, brightly opposing the dim lights she’d turned on at the front.
She turned towards the ghost. “Artie said you like manga, right?” She asked. The ghost nodded. “Great! Follow me.”
She flipped another switch on the wall that lit up the back half of the store, but not quite as intensely as the concentrated light over the counter. She felt the warmth of his flames at her back again, but it was more pleasant in the air-conditioned shop.
The manga section was along the back wall of the bookstore, more towards the back left corner of the store. The shiny, colorful spines gleamed slightly in the lighting of the aisle. It was the counter’s line of sight, so she could keep an eye on him and he could come over for help if he needed it.
“We have a good amount for a small town, so hopefully you can find something you like,” Vivi said, sweeping her hand towards the section. “Some new things just came in, too! Assassination Classroom, Case Closed, Sailor Moon - oh my gosh, Sailor Moon ! With the reboot, those things are flying off the shelves, so we need to keep restocking them-”
Pop-pop-pop!
Vivi turned her gaze towards Lewis. The ghost’s hair was flaring ever so slightly, a few licks going up towards the ceiling. She was about to reprimand him before taking in his upturned cheekbones and his hands, now fisted and tucked under his chin. He typically floated around pretty smoothly, but there was now a more noticeable bounce to it.
An excited ghost. All things considered, he looked like a kid in a candy store.
Vivi tilted her head and smiled. “You like Sailor Moon ?” A quick nod. She chuckled softly. “Then go ahead. Just be careful.”
He floated towards the shelf and took out a copy of Sailor Moon . Before opening the manga, he looked back at her again. Is this really okay? He seemed to ask.
She nodded. “Go on.” Vivi pointed to a red upholstered chair near the counter. “Feel free to take a seat here if you want. There are a few other seats around the store if you want some quiet.”
Lewis nodded and took a seat in the chair and started reading. Vivi headed to the counter and took her things out of her bag to get started on her work.
For the most part, their corner of the shop was soon filled with nothing but page flipping, paper shuffling, keyboard taps, the soft guitar instrumental drifting out from Vivi’s laptop, and the very gentle beat of Lewis’ locket heart.
Occasionally, Vivi glanced up at Lewis whenever he shifted in his chair or went between the shelf and the chair. After finishing one copy, he would float to the shelf, put it back, and grab the next one. Vivi had seen folks read manga in the store at alarming speeds, but Lewis seemed to read slower. Judging from the sparkle she saw in him earlier, she figured he was really taking his time and enjoying himself.
By the fourth issue, Lewis remained at the shelf, sitting on the floor and leaning against the bookshelf. He was careful to lean his head away from the books. He looked a bit awkward hunched over like that, but Vivi figured ghosts didn’t have to worry about getting cricks in their necks and appreciated the gesture.
A few of his little spirits- Deadbeats, she and Arthur fondly named them, kept things lively enough in the store. They flew around the shop, peaking through bookshelves and admiring some of the books on display. Vivi was sure the manor they’d first found Lewis in had had a library with the place being so huge, but they were probably old books that went with the aesthetic. Nothing like the brightly-colored books they were checking out now.
At the moment, two of them were perched on Lewis’s shoulders, staring at the pages as he flipped through them ( “Maybe he’s reading to them via ghost thoughts?” Vivi wondered). The other was browsing the travel section, now and again pulling out books and floating over to show Vivi the beautiful landscapes it found.
Seeing Lewis sit and flip through the store’s copies of Sailor Moon made Vivi feel strangely warm inside. She would usually chalk it up to seeing folks find and read their favorite books in the store, or especially her usual excitement about the paranormal, but this was strangely familiar, almost as though she had seen it before. Even though she, Arthur, and certainly not Mystery really read any manga…
Clang!
Vivi jumped. The clock on the wall behind her had chimed, sounding louder than usual without the quiet clamor of people and the store’s instrumentals playing through the speakers. 4 o’clock. She only had an hour before she needed to get home and prep for dinner with her parents.
She tucked the feeling of familiarity from before at the back of her mind before diving back into her research.
—
At 4:45pm, she sighed and closed her laptop. Checking the usual forums hadn’t yielded much. The claims of haunts were either too preposterous or possibly too far for a drive. She’d have to ask Arthur how the van was coming along since the crash. But for the time being, home first and dinner after.
“Hey,” she called to Lewis in a whisper-yell, “time to get going now.” As energetic as she was, she never liked telling someone to quit reading.
Lewis looked up from his book and nodded. The bones in his face looked more relaxed ( could bones relax? ) than they had earlier, or even since they’d all come back to Tempo. He seemed content.
He pointed at the book, then at the shelf he had gotten it from.
“If you could put it back where you found it, that’d be great!” Vivi gave him a thumbs-up. “Unless you’d like me to buy one for you?”
Lewis put his arms and hands up in front of his chest and waved them as if to say, No thanks! That’s alright!
He tucked the manga back into place on the shelf and floated over to the counter. With a thoughtful look, he then pointed to one of the Deadbeats, who was holding a small book about trains, then at Vivi.
Vivi tilted her head. “Um, I’m not sure I follow. You want me to read to them?”
Lewis tilted his head slightly as well, and put his hand flat in the air and shook it. Maybe or kind of? He pointed at the Deadbeat again, then at the register.
“Oh! You want me to get books for them?”
Lewis nodded.
Vivi smiled. “Sure! They seemed pretty happy with what they found.”
Lewis crooked his finger and called his little ghosts over. They smiled and hugged books they found close. The first ghost, the one Lewis originally pointed to, held on to the book about trains. The second ghost came forward with a book about baking cakes. The third ghost, who’d shown Vivi a bunch of landscape books earlier, settled on a book with pictures of Japan.
Vivi ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook, writing a reminder to leave with the money about the books she was buying and adding it to the register when the shop was open next. She, Chloe, and Duet occasionally did this when they saw books they wanted after closing the register, so no one minded.
Vivi looked up at the ghosts, holding onto their new books and getting headpats from Lewis. She had to admit, all of these ghosts were pretty cute. She just wished she could understand them better.
Vivi grabbed her bag and switched off the counter light, then headed towards the front of the store behind the others.
Before going back out into the sun and heat, Vivi paused. “Actually, hang on a sec,” she says, holding up a hand to Lewis. “I need to grab something really quick.”
Lewis tilted his head, but nodded. He stepped away from the door, stretching his arms out in the sunlight while he waited.
Vivi walked to one of the bookshelves in the middle of the store. She ran her eyes along the book covers until she found the section she was looking for, grabbing one book off a shelf. She went to the counter and added the book title and price to the note, then rummaged in her bag until she found cash and laid out the amount with the rest to be added to the register.
She stuffed the book into her bag, already full with her laptop and the papers she brought. The book was small but stuck out of the bag. The dark blue cover and white text of American Sign Language poked out of her bag as she switched off the lights, opened the door and went out.