Confessions of a Curious Bookseller(41)
JM: If you had one piece of advice for a new business owner, what would that be?
FB: Pay your bills without taking out too many loans and pay them on time. Be creative, and you cannot fail. I suppose that’s three.
(Laughter)
JM: We’ll let that one go.
(More laughter)
JM: It has been so wonderful to sit in your shop and get to know you. I have interviewed many people—from world leaders to intellectuals—and this has been a true highlight.
FB: I am humbled. Thank you, June. It’s my pleasure.
JM: The pleasure is mine.
An audio clip of this transcript is unavailable due to technical difficulties. Fawn Birchill apologizes for the inconvenience.
From: Tabitha Birchill
Sent: Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 8:18 PM
To: Fawn Birchill
Subject: Building Collapse
Dear Fawn,
I heard on the news of a building collapse in the city. Did you know about it? Was it near you? I tried calling, but you didn’t pick up.
Love you,
Mother
From: Fawn Birchill
Sent: Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 10:05 PM
To: Tabitha Birchill
Re: Building Collapse
Dear Mother,
Please do not worry. It happened down in South Philly, not West Philly where I live. Apparently no one was injured or hurt. I hear it was being torn down, and it happened to come down faster than they planned. Even though I am far from the epicenter, I appreciate your concern. I happen to live in a very sturdy building, however imperfect it may appear on the outside.
Have you been reading my new blog? I have cut and pasted the link below!
Fawn
January 15, 2019
I wish I knew how to recall emails. Immediately upon sending my mother the link to the blog, I read over the interview again and regretted ever telling her about it. It isn’t the nicest portrayal of her and our family. Thank god that a few moments later, she wrote back saying that the link didn’t work and to resend. I think I will simply tell her that the page is under construction and forever leave it at that. In the future, I should be more careful.
Jane, the old woman who thinks I am her daughter from Hawaii, is getting worse cognitively, so I have made my trips to her apartment much more frequently to see if there’s anything she needs. Butterscotch loves following me in and playing jungle cat in the aloe plants, and I think Jane likes petting him when he sometimes walks by her recliner. Sometimes she calls me by my name, and other times she calls me by her daughter’s name. When she thinks I am her daughter, before I leave I say that I had a wonderful weekend with her and that I will send the kids her love (though if her daughter has kids I wouldn’t know, and I doubt she would know, either, at this point). She sits alone in a recliner by the drafty window and watches reruns of Touched by an Angel and Murder, She Wrote. There is always an unopened box of chocolates on her lap that I believe was a gift from the last Valentine’s Day. Sometimes I wonder what horrible things she did to end up so alone. What scares me most is that she probably did nothing horrible—that this is simply what being unlucky looks like. She has a terrible family, and I, too, have a terrible family. Sometimes I hurry through her apartment because I fear that if I were to stick around too long, I may become her—that I may forget how to open the door, how to extricate myself, and instead sit on her floor staring at the cabinets, only to become a human vegetable. Perhaps that is how her family feels? I opened the cabinets once to see what kind of food she had, and there was nothing but a half-eaten box of Triscuits. Her freezer is filled with those little instant microwave meals, which I think she lives off when she isn’t eating the dinners I leave for her. She also keeps numerous open boxes of rat poison all over her apartment. It is thick with dust in there and bears the odor of medication and quilts—a combination of smells that reminds me of visits to my father and also reminds me of why I no longer do it. I hope that I am never this alone one day, or if I am, that I do not care or realize it—that I am too far mentally gone.
When I went to the store, I couldn’t help myself and bought her some herbal tea, bananas, and saltine crackers. She seemed to appreciate it.
Sam Asimov/CuriousCatBooks/1d
So psyched to read To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari! #newrelease #fiction #novel
Sam Asimov/CuriousCatBooks/5h
Can’t believe I’m just finding out about Ohio by Stephen Markley. What an amazing book! #novel #fiction #betterlatethannever
From: Fawn Birchill
Sent: Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 9:00 AM
To: Staff
Subject: The Parrot
Sam,
I have seen some of the things that you are posting, and I must say that nearly none involve my bookstore. Talking about new books coming out would be fine except for the fact that the store in which you are employed does not carry them. I thought the point of this was to boost our business? Please stick to what we have in inventory.
Many thanks,
Fawn, Owner
Angela Washington/CuriousCatBooks/10m
Good day at CCBE! Butterscotch the cat smells less like mildew this a.m. #miraclesdohappen #smellycat
From: Fawn Birchill
Sent: Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 10:13 AM
To: Staff
Subject: Butterscotch
Angela,
Please explain to me how your post about Butterscotch is supposed to bolster sales. Do you honestly think people will flock from far and wide? Now is not the time to be bringing into question the cleanliness of Butterscotch since we have five supposedly “adorable” feline competitors down the block. We have to be nothing but positive when we speak of him. And please, post about books that are in the inventory, for the one hundredth time!