A Short Story…
Jerry had a problem. He had loved books ever since he was a child. He married a woman who also loved to read. As they aged however, they had eye and other medical problems. Jerry’s wife Malinda had died six months earlier and now he just felt like he would be heading to the graveyard soon himself. Their bookstore which had always been topnotch and successful was now becoming a burden and Jerry thought perhaps he wasn’t selecting the best books to sell. The top-notch best sellers were selling for huge amounts, but not at his store. Perhaps the location was the issue. He asked friends, other readers and the book people from across town but they had nothing to say that helped him either.
In desperation, Jerry went walking around local libraries and schools. Lakewood seemed to be arguing a bit about a new library; University Place had people constantly going in and out at their local library. And two other busy libraries in Tacoma, Swasey on Sixth Avenue near the Tacoma Musical Theatre, and McCormick, the library at 26th in the Proctor area seemed to always be busy. The thing that really struck home with Jerry was the fact that the people working at the libraries were young people.
He mulled over his findings and decided he needed young people, and so he set out to find young people to run his bookstore. His first week was incredibly bad. The second week was worse. The third week he closed his store and just went looking for people who liked books . . . period. He found his sellers riding local buses. They got on the bus, took a seat and then pulled out a book to read.
Jerry hired two book readers from the buses: Annabell and Chuck. The first week as sellers Annabell and Chuck cost Jerry a fortune, but the second week they only cost Jerry a small fortune. The third week, after several discussions, Jerry asked why they weren’t selling more books. They both responded that they didn’t like the books. Jerry thought it over and then came up with an idea. He told each of his workers to find a particular book they thought would sell and then go to work selling it to any customer who stopped into the store or even looked in the store windows. Both of the sellers were pleased to be compensated for their own efforts.
The sellers helped each other with some marketing brochures and catchy images for the windows. Jerry let them prepare by themselves; he didn’t bother his two workers as all. He never even drove by his bookstore. He set a Monday for his return to the bookstore.
On Monday, Jerry drove over to his bookstore and swore. “Dammit. What’s with all the cars out today? They’ll certainly keep away any book buyers.” Jerry parked around the block and walked to the bookstore but stopped before his got there. He was shocked at the line of people wanting to go into the bookstore. “Damnit” said Jerry, “I wonder what’s going on.” When he got to the shop window he was amazed at the painted window. There was a huge painting of a bird with the painted comment, “I puke in my kid’s mouth.” There was also a large painting of the book itself: “The Mincing Mockingbird – Guide to Troubled Birds . . . Profusely Illustrated.” Annabell waved to Jerry and said, “Come on in!”
Jerry made his way inside and was stopped by Chuck and found people with stacks and stacks of books. They weren’t big books, but they were being picked up all over the place. One that I loved was the book “Whatever It Takes – Thoughts to Inspire and Celebrate Your Commitment to Excellence.” The comment I loved the most was the phrase, “If you feel happy, tell your face.” Jerry was smiling, too.
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