This was a short piece I did for fifth grade, a while ago.
That was it. The end of books as we know it. The was only one remaining bookstore but the owner...
Albert Smith sighed as he loaded the last of the books, sent from authors who wanted their books famous. After all, he owned the last bookstore in the world, and online shopping… isn’t a thing. His store had been a lonely store for years, but yesterday it was hit by an abrupt tornado of people. He fumbled with change all day and had to get one of his employees to help him. Back in the days, he would have been overjoyed to see his books fly off the shelves, being purchased to enjoy by people of all ages. But now, his body was frail and he couldn’t do much more. So having to load the books to the truck was like a nightmare. And he had fallen ill. But he couldn’t bear the sight of all those kids, deep into thought of those wonderful fairy tales or mysteries. He just couldn’t break their hearts.
So for the sake of those children, he worked. Somedays, his wife would help him shelve books and work out change. Yet she couldn’t she what her husband saw in books. To her, they were silly pages of words.
“Why do you read and sell books? Other than for a living, of course.” she questioned. His answer surprised her.
“I read books because books can help you forget, and take you to another world. Here, read this book,” he said, handing her a book.
“Thanks… I’ll try it out.” she declared and sat down on her favorite armchair covered in fragmented fabrics.
A few days later, the wife told her husband, “Wow, that book really touched me, where did you find this?”
He answered, “From a customer. Could you imagine a world without books?” Then the wife learned how much the store was to him.
So they ed forces to build a library where people could read for free. They hired people to read books to young children with inflection. The business was ed down for years until it came to Albert’s great- grandson, who was already a grown man. The first ‘no-book’ reader in years. So the father, Albert’s grandson, gave him a fragile-looking book. The same book that was read by Albert’s wife, his great- grandmother.
“Thanks father, but there’s no way I’ll enjoy this.” he thought as the sat down and opened the cover. It was a faded blue covered book.
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely… having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of earth.” he silently read. By the end, he was completely moved by the words. “So this is the land of stories. Where you could forgot.” he told himself. He accepted ownership of the store as his. As for “Moby Dick”? It was known as the persuader book in the family, because the ‘no-book’ readers were never again ‘no book’ readers. And Albert knew it would mean a lot to his wife. Why? Because it was the first book ever sold during the “tornado”(I guess people like it). So, thanks to Albert, he kept bookstores alive. Until the internet was created…
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