Explain It Like I'm Tree

Vonnegut

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. —Kurt Vonnegut

It was one of the many quotes in papyrus lettering, printed in black and white on size 8.5x11 printer paper and taped up around Tome Tomb's walls, and it was Vivi's least favorite. Not Vonnegut's fault. It was a perfectly serviceable quote to decorate a bookstore with, and often conjured to Vivi's mind a nebulous vision of what heaven or nirvana might look like. But it just wasn't true.

"Nothing was beautiful and everything hurt," she muttered for the millionth time. That was the reality of things. That was your feet on the ground right here and now. That was real life. The Vonnegut quote felt like a mockery each and every time she looked at it.

Vivi paged through the inventory shipment for the day, checking off the latest batch of manga Chloe had ordered for the shop. Her co-worker was allowed to order ten titles a month for the International Corner—Otaku Corner, if it were honestly titled—but it looked like she'd gone over the limit again. Duet, their boss, would lecture. Chloe would apologize and skip off to re-organize her corner again. Another overage would probably happen in a couple months. Chloe never got in real trouble, over this or anything else. It rankled Vivi a little, but until she could figure out what relational tie Duet and Chloe had, she wasn't going to risk griping.

Besides. There was a far more important can of worms to bust open.

She glanced at her watch. Almost lunch. Fishing her phone out of her pocket, she opened up a new text to Arthur.

Hey Artie—Pausing, she considered how to best get a "yes" to her request. Arthur had been kinda dodgy about one-on-one meetings for a while. There was one surefire way, but... Wrinkling her nose, she continued typing. Wanna do lunch? Surf's Up Surprise, my treat. She shut her eyes, jamming her thumb down on the send button. "For the greater good," she muttered. Pizza with oysters was a sacrilege against gastronomy, but if she could finally get him to sit down and talk...

A few minutes later, her phone chirped, delivering Arthur's enthusiastic response. Right on time for Chloe to waltz in. "Is that my shipment?" she sang, spreading her arms wide. "I swear to Miyazaki, if they back-ordered my copies of the new Card Captor Sakura issues again, I don't care how good a discount they give, I will find another supplier!"

Vivi rolled her eyes, mouthing along with Chloe's diatribe as she passed. "They think just because we're a small bookstore, they can jerk us around. Well they've got another think coming! There's a million suppliers out there, and I will have my manga or they can kiss our business goodbye!"

Vivi made it out the door without and crouched to untie Mystery's leash from the parking sign. "Hey, buddy. We're gonna have lunch with Arthur. Well, I'm gonna have lunch. I'll save you some."

Mystery immediately stuck his tongue out, making gagging noises.

"Not Arthur's pizza, dummy." She laughed, ruffling the top of his head. "I wouldn't do that to you. You can have some of my Slaughterhouse Pie."

That stubby tail wagged so fast it was a blur.

............................................

Vivi drummed her fingers on the table, keeping an eye on her watch. Allowing for travel, Arthur should be here about the same time as their pizzas came out to the dining area. She tried to remember a cheesy joke about watches, and who'd said it to her.

"Why do we call it a 'watch' when we're always looking... no." She frowned. "We should call it a 'look' because... nghhh." She couldn't remember whose voice had told her that one, either. Probably not Mystery. Could have been Arthur, but could have easily been assigned to the blank spot in her mind, the one where she was supposed to have memories of a certain ghost's mortal existence.