Read Online The Bookstore Clerk by Mykola Dementiuk - Free Book Online Page A

still had a half hour to kill. He went for the basement door so he could read his Spanish comic book. I smiled and went through the revolving doors into Doubleday’s.
Coming up to the second floor, I instantly saw Miss Terri stepping into the elevator. I put my name tag back on my lapel and starting shelving books, keeping my eyes on Connie; something was up, I was sure of it. Connie was assisting her customers, but was keeping her eyes on me. I neared the shelves containing the X, Y, Z authors, not many, and looked at the nearby non-fiction paperbacks that Connie was in charge of. As soon as she saw me, her face filled with hatred and spite. She slammed a book down, two customers glancing at her, and went to the other side of her non-fiction section. I got out of there and hurried to the center of the fiction section. I hoped it would work out as long as we stayed apart.
About an hour later, Timmy peered in to have a look.
“Everything okay?” he asked, winking at me.
“As good as it can be,” I answered, winking back at him.
He nodded and went back downstairs. Connie glared viciously at me again. I shrugged and went on with my work, refilling the shelves with some best sellers, The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer and Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal. I always blushed when someone bought the Vidal book, and someone seemed to be buying a copy every hour. I told myself that I would read it. The notion of cross-dressing intrigued me, enough so that every time I saw someone looking at the book, I felt my penis happily rising in a salute. Mailer’s Armies I stayed away from; military or angry demonstrations had nothing to do with me, and that’s for sure.
I had my other break at three, and Maryann, another nonfiction clerk, also had her break then; we walked out together. She was my age, in her 20s, but the way she kept her hand up to her face clearly showed off her wedding ring.
“Nice ring,” I said, looking at it.
“Oh, this?” she blushed. “It’s my wedding ring.”
“Yeah, I thought so,” I said, smiling at her.
“You married?” she asked and blushed, as if she knew the answer; I also blushed.
“Nope, got better things to do.”
We were walking around the block and were on Madison Avenue.
“Like what? Don’t you want a family?”
“Sure I do, but there’s more to life than just a family.”
Maryann snorted.
“Yeah, like what?”
“Like loving the person you’re with, that’s a family, there’s nothing greater than that.” We looked at each other. “Been married for long?”
“Four months tomorrow,” she said.
“Wow, nice,” I grinned at her.
She looked at me.
“What’s so nice about it?”
“I don’t know, that you’re married, I guess?”
She snorted.
“A lot of good that does,” Maryann said sadly, shaking her head. “Guys have it so much easier, you know?”
“We do? How do you see that?”
“Guys can pick and chose who they want, we have to wait until a guy likes us but that doesn’t mean he won’t be cheating on us, because he will.” She nodded her head as if telling me a secret truth.
“Oh, that’s crazy. Absurd, really. If you don’t like a guy, tell him ‘Goodbye, Jack, hit the road, buddy.’ And before you know it he will, anyway. What’s he going to do about it? Absolutely nothing!”
We were back on 5 th Avenue. She frowned and shook her head.
“You think it’s that easy?” Maryann sighed as we passed through the revolving door, I passed after her. “Just wait till you’re married, then you’ll see.”
We walked up the stairs.
“How do you know I’m not living with someone? We can do without the legal crap. Life can be beautiful.” I winked at her and went back to my station.
There weren’t that many full-time bookstore clerks. The majority were part-timers who were actors, dancers, or stand-up comedians trying to get a big break in the show-business world of Broadway. A few of the girl clerks asked me if I was an entertainer. I shook my head,