Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls by Charles de Lint

Author:Charles de Lint [de Lint, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989741054
Publisher: Triskell Press
Published: 2022-11-28T21:00:00+00:00

Nick’s part-time staffer Annie is behind the counter when Sonora and I enter the shop. She looks different, and it takes me a moment to realize that she’s swapped her usual horn rims for contacts.

“Hey, Juniper,” she says.

She calls Sonora around to her side of the counter and gives her a biscuit from the jar they keep on hand for shoppers with dogs.

“Is Nick keeping you busy?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “He’s back in his office.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t realize I’m actually going to break up with him until I clear a stack of books from his spare chair and sit down. Sonora doesn’t settle the way she usually does in here. Instead she sits by my chair and leans a little against my leg. I like to think she’s offering me moral support.

The office is its usual controlled chaos, which means Nick knows where everything is but anybody else just sees a mess. Like the bookstore itself, there are bookshelves everywhere, crammed with books. More tottering stacks are on the floor, Nick’s desk, really, anywhere there’s room.

Nick smiles. “You must have had a busy day.”

Which is a passive-aggressive way of saying, why didn’t you return my texts? Or is that just me being snarky to make what I’m about to do easier on me?

“I’ve been here, there and everywhere today,” I tell him.

“Just so long as you’re not avoiding me,” he says with a laugh.

“Yeah, about that…”

I pause for a moment to collect my thoughts.

“You’re a great guy,” I say, “and I appreciate that you’re interested in a committed relationship, but I just don’t feel the same way. We’ve had fun, but now you keep bringing up the idea of moving in together and I start to get anxious before I see you because I’m always afraid that conversation’s going to come up again.”

“You’re not ready.”

His voice is flat and I’m too much of a chicken to meet his gaze.

“I don’t know that I’ll ever be ready.” I finally look up and there’s the hurt in his eyes that I didn’t want to see. “I get that we’re of an age when most people start thinking about settling down and raising a family, but that’s not me. I like how my life is right now. I like what I’m doing.”

He looks genuinely puzzled as he repeats, “What you’re doing.”

“You know. Volunteering with Jilly. Helping ghosts and, well, other people.”

“Ghosts aren’t people. They’re dead.”

“But they once were people. And if they’re still hanging around they have real, genuine concerns that are holding them back from wherever it is we go in the end.”

“Of course. You’re right.” He rubs his face. “But why do you have to be the one helping them?”

“Because I can see and hear them.”

We fall silent. He has a clock on the wall—it’s an old vinyl single that someone turned into a timepiece. It ticks away the moments we’re sitting here, not saying anything to each other.

“So you want to break up,” he says finally.

I could tell him we can still be friends, but what I really want is some space.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.