the others, it too smelled of pipes and frayed, moth-eaten memories. This made her happy.
She soon heard her father drawing near to the phone.
“Hello?”
“I’m here, Daddy.”
“Yeah, it was what I thought… Ya mama need to stay off that Amazon website.” He snorted. “She ordered some rug for the bedroom this time around. Watch. She won’t like it and off to the garage it’ll go, then down to the church for their annual fundraising sale since she never sends any of this shit back.”
“I bet it’ll be pretty. Daddy, I gotta go. I have a bunch of books I need to price to put up in the shop and I need the money, so I better get cracking. I can give you a call tomorrow. Tell Mama I said hello.”
“All right. I’ll do that. Talk to you soon, baby, and keep lookin’ into getting a loan so you can stay put.”
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
She disconnected the call, grabbed a white pricing sticker from her roll, and slapped the $2.99 tag on the 1942 travel book that detailed places worth visiting in Japan. Most of those restaurants and shops mentioned in it were probably long gone, and though it was rare to see such a book as a hardback, it probably wouldn’t sell for much more. On and on she went, then paused when she came across a paperback about the life of Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and theorist who was known for his environmental farming and re-vegetation of dry lands.
She didn’t recall selecting the book from Benjamin’s library earlier that day, but Aiden had assisted her at one point. Maybe he’d slipped it in the box.
Aries kept checking in on them every now and then in between dismantling furniture and making pick-up calls to various collectors or auctioneers. But most of the time, it was just her and the boy. Aries had been right. Aiden was a wonderful child, silly and handsome. His voice cracked every now and again, showing the change was coming, but he held on to some of his babyish ways.
He followed her instructions well and after a while, she asked him to toss in anything that he felt may be interesting to a buyer. They’d grown tired. After working for hours, rehydrating with multiple bottles of water, they took a break to scarf down a pizza, breadsticks, and soda Aries had ordered for them and the movers. She figured any books she couldn’t sell, she’d donate to local libraries.
She flipped all the way to the back of the book and was about to toss it in the ever-growing ninety-nine cent clearance pile when she noticed a black and white photograph wedged between the last page and back cover. In it was a tall, slender man in a business suit, three children, two boys and a girl, all looking to be between the ages of seven and twelve. A woman posed with them, too, her graceful neck adorned with beautiful jewelry. Her expression was so serious. At the back of the photo was written “Papa, Mama, Virginia, Benjamin and Jacob’ in faint blue ink. Below this, a date, May 8th, but the year wasn’t legible, with the exception of the number ‘4.’
The boy standing in the middle drew her eye. He looked so much like a young Benjamin, but also a lot like Aiden. So much so, the resemblance was bone-chilling.
“I have to show this to Aries. This is the sort of thing he’s been needing.” And to think, she’d almost overlooked it. Time went on, the music played, and before she knew it, she found herself waking up startled at 2:32 A.M. as the rain came down hard, lightning striking like a drum. She’d fallen asleep amongst a mountain of books and the scent of years gone by filling the air.
She rubbed her eyes and smiled as she realized she only had a few more boxes to finish. I don’t even recall working that hard. Oh shit… She yawned. Aries is coming over in a few hours to pick me up for breakfast. I better take my ass to bed. She stumbled to her feet, turned off the music and the lights, and headed to her bedroom.
In no time, she managed to stuff her tired limbs into an over-sized T-shirt featuring a picture of Baby Yoda wearing headphones and a pair of loose cotton shorts with an unfortunate bleach stain right on the hip. Begrudgingly, she set her alarm so she’d have enough time for