Recently, I stopped by the local chain bookstore to pick up a small supply of bookplates.  (They are those little slips of labels pre-printed with “From the Library of—,” “Ex Libris,” or “This Book Belongs to—”).

I didn’t have much time to browse that section of the store when the clerk insisted that he help me.

Well, that is, until I said I needed bookplates.

A puzzled look immediately overtook his happy demeanor, whereupon I proceeded to describe them.

He still had a blank look.

I further described them.

Notwithstanding, a blank look was set upon his face.  He spoke into his squawk box to ask “someone” else in the store.

“Nope.  I guess we don’t carry them,” was his assertion.

Now the puzzled look fell upon my face.  This is a bookstore, I thought, and they don’t carry bookplates?

I thanked him and left the store to shop in the mall.  That nagging feeling stayed with me while I was in the other stores.  I just knew they carried those bookplates at the bookstore.  So, when I was finished shopping, I returned to the bookstore and made a beeline for the stationery section.

And wouldn’t you know it?  There they were on a spinning display, waiting for me to pick the one I wanted with my initial!

When I went up to the counter to pay for them, the clerk had that unmistakable look of blissful revelation wash upon his face. 

“Oh!” he exclaimed.  “How idiotic of me.  I know what these are.  Sorry about that.”

“No worries,” I replied.  “Bookplates probably aren’t a usual purchase in these days of electronic books and other virtual publications!”

©2022 Colcannon Metropolis, “Aren’t They Just!” “Life is Funny,” “Points Well Taken,” and “Thoughts on the Terrace on a Rainy Day”