The Mafia Son

part 29

"you? a book store? how many books have you read in your life? since I've met you, you've only ever started reading Wiseguy because you liked the good fellas movie, and you couldn't even finish that book!" Lola taunted me.

"alright alright... I've read books before okay. I'm just a buissy guy! And I didn't finish that book because the guy in the movie was a rat and if I had to read that it would just make me angry!" I replied a bit annoyed.
Lola laughed and softly kissed me on my cheek.

"Well good luck today, you look great."
I was wearing a somewhat too large white button up shirt, held up by some suspenders  and a pair of tailored trousers.

I smiled sarcastically for a second, but then decided to give her a quick kiss before I left.

before I walked out the door, my dad held my up.
"before you leave, I wanted to make sure you don't think this is going to be some slack job," he started. "I got you this job so we can have a somewhat proper income around here, so I put you with Luigi. He will make sure you do a proper job and don't you think because he is my friend that he will go easy on you. Luigi may have seemed really nice when you first met him, but don't underestimate that men alright?"

"yea yea" I shrugged him of a bit before I finally left.

I took the same bus as the other day when I went to the shop with my dad and got of at the same bus station.
today there was no one else there.

I walked into the store, where Luigi was already sitting at the counter.

first he showed me around the store. He showed me what books stood where, where the restrooms were, showed me where they kept the expensive books were placed and were the register was.
The book store was old. the book cases and tables were all made of dark wood, the register didn't take cards and a the books had stickers on them with the prices on them, which I had to calculate in my head at the register when selling. I also had to calculate the change. Even the books looked old and most of them had a small layer of dust over them, the entire store smelled of dust and just generally old stuff. the store wasn't all too lit either, most of the light came from old, dim wall lamps with covers that you would find at your grandparents house.

It was very calm in the store, about 5 people came in the entire day, of which 2 were tourists looking for anything that they wouldn't find in their home country.

Luigi had me clean the store mostly. I also got to put books in alphabetical order and bring books in from the back. There was also a delivery of new books, which I had to take out to the back.
If a customer had a question, I would send them over to Luigi, cause I knew he would be able to help them out.

At around 1 pm I had a lunch break, but since I hadn't brought any food, I went to the closest grocery store to get a sandwich and to buy some cigarettes.
in the front of the store some kids were messing around. they were the same kids that stood at the bus station the other day. they were just pushing eachother around and kicking sand at eachother. I didn't think too much of it. they would occasionally talk to or walk into people that walked in and out of the grocery store, but they didn't bother me. I did make sure to keep my eyes on them tho.

when I got back to the store, I had about half an hour left for my break. I sat on the bench infront of the store, lit a cigarette and ate my sandwich.
The front of the store resembled the inside.
at the top, an old, wooden nameplate wrote: "Pio's"
with in little letters underneath: "the antique bookstore."
the paint on the nameplate was badly chipped and the words were vague and hard to read.
on the right of the storefront was the door, an old, wooden door with on the right a doorbell, which was an actual bell with a cord that you had to pull for it to sound.
Just underneath the nameplate, next to the door was a big window, through which I saw Luigi sorting through some shelves. the window was pretty clean, probably because it got cleaned often enough, but the bricks and the wooden frame around the window were as old as the rest of the building. the bricks had rounded edges and were heavily dented. the wooden, once white frame that held the window, was covered in moss and had water stains all over.

after I finished, I went back inside and leaned against the counter, where Luigi was now sitting.
"Hey Luigi, why is it you called your store Pio's if I may ask?" I asked curiously.

Luigi looked away from me for a second.
"Pio..." He sighted heavily before he continued. "Pio was my son. He died at 12 years old by cancer."

I looked at Luigi with a bit of disbelieve.
"My father never told me... I'm sorry to hear that."

"Your father is like me, we don't like to get all emotional about things or talk about our feelings." he said.

"yeah I recognize that in him" I said with a little smirk. "he never talks about my little sister who I lost a few years ago and he fobids us to talk about her when he is around." I focused my eyes on the floor for a second and then back at Luigi.

"well, I think you should get back to work now, enough hanging around and chatting. those books don't sort themselves." He said, dismissing the conversation.