Bookstore

Bookstore by Imaginary Parachute
It was one of the gestures and awkwardly innocent conversations that comes straight out of a disarmingly heartfelt movie. I was just an innocent bystander who saw their tentative dance around each other's shyness. It was pretty hard hitting.

Sarah Thinks: This short one-shot (only slightly over 2400 words) is a quick, happy read. Told from an observer's point-of-view, which is the first of it's kind that I've read, Bookstore takes the best friend cliche and puts that real-life feeling into it that makes it seem as though the story could be acted out in tiny hole-in-the-wall bookstores around the world. Imaginary Parachute uses a wonderful sense of flow and word choice (even using the word celery as an adjective at one point!) to make the two main characters (whose names are never revealed to the narrator/observer) seem extremely life-like and real. There are also parts of this short story that made me giggle like a girl and the ending made me grin like a madwoman. If you need a quick pick-me-up or a reaffirmation that cliches can happen in real life, this is the piece you've been looking for.

Belinda Thinks: From the perspective of a reminiscing, middle aged bystander, this oneshot details the beginning of a relationship with clarity and warmth. The two main characters are best friends, but even more than that, they're soul mates. An incident at the bookstore cements their relationship as such.

The scene is well written, free of grammatical and usage errors. It is imaginative and obviously the result of some very hard work. But that's not the best bit. What distinguishes this one shot from all the rest is that the author uses a unique point of view that weaves in fond thoughts of an established marriage with indulgent observations of the budding romance.

Like the narrator, you will leave the scene with both a smile on your face and a reinforced faith in romance and fairytales. And that's definitely worth something.