Community Relations

[TheDeathClown]

(Closed for Intriguess and I)

Brookfield Community Library Invites You To
It’s Seventeenth Annual Charity Flea Market


Byron Wheeler let down the back of his pickup truck and grabbed a large cardboard box full of used books. Most of them were Harlequin romance novels which he had been saving for the two years. He had never read them himself, but they had given him a sentimental feeling, whenever he looked over and saw them on the shelf in his bedroom. It was a feeling like Marla might walk back through the front door at any time.


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Byron was a tall, well built man. His biceps flexed as he took the weight of the books. Today he had dressed without thought, as usual. For once the effect was almost passable. He had on faded blue jeans, black steel toed boots, a wide leather belt with a buckle shaped like the Millennium Falcon and a black ribbed, v-neck t-shirt. His firm chin held about two day’s growth of whiskers, which were coming in a bit grey. His short, thick brown hair was also flexed with bits of grey. A rather square pair of glasses sat on his hawk nose. Behind them, his grey eyes looked cheerful, with crows’ feet at their edges.

He hefted the box on one broad shoulder and then grabbed a shopping bag also full of books. His best friend Kate was running the library book sale stand. He had promise her that he would help out by spelling her on the stand and by donating some of Marla’s old books. Kate had been friends with Marla for many years, before she had married Byron. He was the new guy in town still, despite having lived here for fifteen years. That was how small towns were, he guessed.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p233/TheAutumnComes/test.jpg


The front lawn in front of the old town library was littered with booths. There was a quilting display set up from the Presbyterian women from Brookfield Presbyterian Church. The firehouse had a booth as well, where two burly firefighters were fingerprinting children, in case they ever went missing. A thin policewoman was helping them. Pete’s Barbershop selling chances for free haircuts for a year. All of them were had paid for the space for their booth. The money benefited the library fund, which was always small.

One booth was for the library itself and was next to fifteen tables set up in rows. The tables were covered with books for sale. Byron walked up to one of the tables and set down his burdens. He waved at his friend Kate. She smiled and waved back.

 

[intriguess]

She couldn't believe it, she had finally turned into her grandmother. She was stopping at a flea market. While her grandmother would have attended with her mother or sisters. Marla didn't have any sisters, and she was travelling alone today. She thought of how her nieces might have enjoyed the experience. The lure of a quilts on display caused her to stop. The cheerful vendors and scent of funnel cakes made her wander along the booths.

She stood out minimally as she was dressed casually, teal capris, that on her short frame looked like slightly short pants. A sleeveless teal shirt showed off her strong arms and buttoned up like it was today, covered her ample breasts, as there was no way to hide them. She finally stopped at the library display, letting her fingers walk along the spines of books looking for something special that was often lurking in places like this.

 

[TheDeathClown]

Kate was taking a stroll around the flea market, checking over the vendor booths. She was one of the two full-time librarians and was in charge of the library booth and the flea market itself. It was still early morning and business was still a bit slow. Only the early birds were out looking for the proverbial worm. Byron kept busy arranging the donated books, trying to keep them as organized as possible. He knew that his hard work would be destroyed as the day progressed, but he couldn’t help himself.

There was a cool breeze blowing and a few stray orange maple leaves settled on the books. Byron was regretting not wearing his jacket now, since there were goosebumps forming on his arms. Down the rows of books, he could see an attractive woman looking through a box. He shrugged his head. If he was cold in his t-shirt, he wasn’t sure how she could endure wearing a sleeveless shirt.

Byron moved to the next set of boxes, right behind the woman and started to arrange the boxes there. One had about twenty novels about a cat detective. It looked like something Marla would have read. Mysteries and romances… Byron smiled grimly and started sorting them in terms of the numbers on the spine.

Marla had often accused him of being a bit anal about details. He dressed casually, and wasn't concerned with his personal appearance. Still, there was nothing casual about how he kept bills, sorted media collections or organized their kitchen. He would even come along and stick bookmarks in the books she was reading, so that she didn’t have to leave them splayed open, to keep her spot. Sometimes he still wondered if it was one of the reasons things hadn’t worked out between them. Marla had taken great care with her personal appearance, but she had always left pantyhose laying around the kitchen, books laying open on top of uneaten plates of pasta and was persistent in her creation of a junk mail mountain right behind the front door of their small house. Of course, Byron had kept his own collect of ship models (both aquatic and interstellar) in the garage, stored neatly on shelves, or hanging from the ceiling on wires.

It took a few minutes, but he got the boxes on the table in front of him in order. Satisfied with his work, he backed up, and crashed into something soft.

 

[intriguess]

Marla had a photographic memory, just by looking at the covers she could tell if she'd read a book. Her sister in law and stepmother both were avid readers of romance, Marla had only read them when bored while babysitting her nieces or trapped in her fathers house as a child. Everywhere she went, she looked for one book in particular, she'd started reading it the last time she was at her father's house as a child, and had not had the opportunity to finish it and she DID NOT want to consider asking her step mother. She was rather focused on the titles and did not notice the man who bumped into her.

She was naturally warm blooded, she didn't bother with a coat unless the temperature fell below 40 degrees, and she didn't sweat unless it was hot and she was engaged in serious physical activity.

She turned to face him with a casual smile on her face, "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings."

 

[TheDeathClown]

Byron backed up a step. He was suddenly very aware of how attractive the woman was, and how curvaceous as well. He forced his eyes to stay on her face. In fact, he locked his eyes with her, to keep them from traveling downward any more than they already. His gaze did travel around her head though, taking in her features and hair.

"No problem." She didn't look like a local. He had been here long enough to know just about everyone in town. Still, you never knew. Even in a small town, you could miss people. O.K., probably not this person, but still... "Hi, I'm Byron." He put his hand out a bit akwardly. He really handn't dated since Marla took off on him and certainly had't dated in the ten years of their marriage. He was comfortable enough around Kate and their friends, but strange, attractive women did tend to get him a bit tongue tied. "Uh... Can I help you with anything... finding anything?"

 

[intriguess]

She took the proffered hand, "Marla Davies." She smiled as their handshake extended a bit beyond the typical time. "I'm looking for a historical romance, about a mixed race young woman in the old south who rather than be sold off as a mistress opts to flee her family." She was a little surprised at her open rambling, "I started it a long time ago at a friends and never got around to finishing it. By now they've probably stored it away in a box or donated it to a book drive such as this." Her hand casually waved at the tables, "I guess I've always wondered how the story ended."

 

[TheDeathClown]

Marla....

Byron blanched a bit at the woman's name, but quickly recovered himself. "Well, let me see... Marla." He turned his back on her, as his pulse slowly returned to normal. It took him only a few seconds to find it. He, of course, hand not read the book, but Marla, his Marla, had forced him to watch the mini-series with her. O.K., he had actually gotten into it after awhile.

He turned around with a paper back in his hand. On the cover was a cream colored beauty, who was barely covered by the tatters of a white dress. Her rounded breasts where heaving, as she was held in the strong arms of a tall, bare chested black Hercules. Only a strip of cloth remained of the bodice, which happened to be strategically placed over her nipples. Her lover was looking down at her with a look of longing. Byron almost laughed when he got a good look at the cover, since the man wasn't staring at her breasts, but into her beautiful brown eyes. Like that would happen if he was holding a woman who looked like that and was in a state of semi-dress. The title was a bold red slash and said BLACK PEARL. Suddenly he realized he was staring at the cover. He covered his discomfort with an attempt at humor. "Gee, I never knew they had silicone implants in the Old South. Here it is." He held the book out.

 

[intriguess]

She glanced at the book and frowned, "Not it, oh well. I suppose there are only so many romance themes." She noticed his reaction to her name and wondered, it wasn't like Marla was that common of a name after all. "I guess I'll just skim through the sci fi section. I always liked a good save the future, save the human race story."

The book she was thinking of had a woman with a much darker complexion in a red dress, in tatters but not so revealing. She was still surprised at how covers for a book intended for women, were usually drawn by men who were abnormally focused on breasts.

 

[FallenMorgan]

OOC: My character: http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j183/Xaritix/Hlly/tan_morgan-1.jpg

IC:

I was looking through stands at the little swap meet. I wasn't all into being outside but yet I was bored and there wasn't much else to do that day. I eventually came across a little book stand or something.

"Hello," I said to the guy there. I rather enjoyed alternate history books, I didn't like the ones like "Guns of the South" or anything, I liked the ones like "For Want of a Nail", less stupidity in the storyline.

I saw out of the corner of my eye, as I was looking through the books and whatnot, a quite pretty looking young lady. I wasn't the type to stare and gock at girls, but I'll admit, she looked nice.

OOC: To prevent the thread getting messed up, I suggest perhaps we go in an order where first TheDeathClown posts, then intriguess, then me, in that order, because I'll be gone for one or two hours.