Grimm's Last Fairy Tale Read Online Free PDF

understood. To have someone care about her the way he must have felt about his instrument would be a first in her life.
    These random thoughts eventually led her back to sleep and the rest of the night was filled with uninterrupted slumber.

Chapter 8,
    in which Maggie tries her best to compartmentalize her amorous specter, his presence is explained, and she has a very uncomfortable run-in with a rude customer

    When she arrived at the bookstore, she was not greeted by the resident feline.
    “That darn cat! She must have been locked in the back room again.”
    Maggie went back to the chilly, dark storage room and the minute she opened the door, Hemingway burst through with plenty to say on the subject. She ran up front to her food dish, leaving Maggie to clean up the inevitable mess. Maggie sniffed around and her nose finally led her to a small pile thankfully away from the antique books that were stored there. As she began to clean up, she heard a voice that was becoming all too familiar.
    “Margaret, you are above such menial tasks. It breaks my heart that you have to do that.”
    Maggie, still on all fours, crawled around to face the specter addressing her.
    “Jacob, what are you doing? It makes me a little uneasy to think of all the ways you must have encountered me. It’s like you’re a voyeur and I have no way of knowing what you’ve been seeing.”
    “Hitherto, I have only been able to visit you when you were reading me, and you always read me when you needed to escape. That is how I was able to connect the dots and know of what you had been through. But now that you have invited me . . .”
    “Wait, wait, wait! I have not invited you. Quite the contrary, I told you yesterday that you needed to leave. I didn’t mean for just a few hours. I meant I can’t have you in my life at all. It’s more than I can deal with.”
    “Do you not remember that I asked you if I may appear before you?”
    “Yes, but I meant right then. I didn’t mean from now on.”
    “I see. I thought you meant that it was more or less an open invitation.”
    “No, Mr. Grimm, my life is very complicated and I am, quite frankly, worn out. I have neither the energy nor the inclination to attach myself to someone at this point; and, especially not a spirit or whatever it is that you are. That makes it way beyond complicated.”
    “I don’t want to make your life complicated at all. In fact, that is the last thing I want. But Margaret, I believe that given the chance, I could make your life better. Please don’t think that I’m arrogant at all. But due to the length of time I’ve watched over you, I know you better than anyone. I see the tears you cry when you want no one to see them. I know what hurts you and I know what makes you laugh.”
    “Look, Jacob, I don’t mean to cut you off, but I need to get up front. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
    Maggie was laconic in her delivery of that brush-off. She just needed to forget that she’d ever met this spirit and get on with her lackluster life. It wasn’t glamorous. It was predictable and safe. And, that is precisely how she needed it to be.
    “As you wish, Margaret. But if you ever need anyone to talk to, I’ll be there. Just call me.”
    There was mournful surrender in his voice.
    Maggie just turned and walked slowly back up to the front of the store. She never looked back. She silently prayed for no customers that day so she could just work and contemplate a way to make Jacob disappear for good.
    She went through her day with no enthusiasm, and with a little irritation at the number of customers that chose that day to visit the bookstore and the insanely obscure books they wanted to order. Though it distracted her from her own craziness, it did not allow for any quiet reflective time to consider her predicament.
    Jacob honored her request and she began to feel a little emptiness in his absence. But it was for the best. She kept telling herself that—over and over again.