In the early afternoon a customer entered the shop and asked if we have a copy of ‘the book called Kidnapped’. I told him that, yes, we have several copies in the Scottish room. Without even bothering to reply, let alone check, he left the shop.
I made a wooden shield mount from an old tray, mounted the shot Kindle and hung it in the shop.
There has been no sign of Captain, the shop’s cat, since Sunday. When I spoke to Anna on Skype and mentioned it, she seemed very worried and depressed about it, imagining all sorts of unlikely fates that may have befallen the unfortunate creature.
Till total £235.47
27 customers
WEDNESDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Nicky came in to work today. She managed to find the two books that I couldn’t find yesterday. She had listed them, then put them on completely different shelves from the locator codes on the database.
The depressed Welsh woman telephoned again, with the usual consequences. I wonder whether she might have a vast list of bookshops and spend all day every day telephoning them and asking the same question. By my reckoning such a list must be long enough to occupy her for two months before she has to start at the top again, which coincides more or less with the frequency of her calls.
At 11 a.m. Norrie and Muir turned up with the concrete books and the steel rod to make the new spirals, amid much excitement and consternation from passers-by.
I offered Nicky a cup of tea at about 3.30 p.m. She replied, ‘Aye, but only if it’s in a bone-china cup and saucer. I do not want one of your rubbish mugs.’
After work I filled in the application for the James Patterson bookshop grant. I will check it later and send it in.
Still no sign of the cat.
Till total £273.94
24 customers
THURSDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 3
Nicky was in again today. She brought me a present of four bashed-in tins of tomatoes that were heavily discounted in the co-op.
At 10 a.m. I drove to Newton Stewart to pick up building supplies. I have to create a performance space in the back of the shop for the festival. While I was at the builders’ merchants, I bumped into Ronnie, the electrician, and reminded him that he has not yet sent me an invoice for some work he did for me three years ago.
Wigtown’s co-op closed at 4 p.m. for a refit. We now have to go to Newton Stewart for food shopping. It opens again on the 18th. This news is being greeted with at least as much excitement by some people of the town as the Scottish independence referendum on the same date.
Till total £411.44
19 customers
FRIDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 4
Nicky back in again. The first thing she said was, ‘Do you want some bramble jam? Well, it’s not really jam. And it’s pretty disgusting, it’s far too sweet and I put chilli powder in it too. It might be quite nice with some meat.’
We found all of the orders, and I asked Nicky to deal with Royal Mail and drop the parcels off with Wilma at the post office. At 5 p.m. I noticed that they were still sitting in the shop, so I confronted her about it. She replied that they could wait until tomorrow. When I pointed out that this means that customers who ordered books on Thursday will not receive them now until Monday or Tuesday, and that we promise delivery within forty-eight hours, she replied, ‘They wilnae mind.’
After lunch I drove to Glasgow airport to pick up Anna, who spent most of the journey home articulating her various implausible theories about what might have happened to Captain, the errant cat.
As I was closing the shop, I spotted – on the shelf where Nicky had previously housed her ‘Home Front Novels’ (which I had removed) – a new shelf label called ‘Real-life trauma/abuse’. I removed it immediately. She clearly put it there to annoy me.
Nicky told me, on leaving, that she might come in on Monday, but only if she feels like it.
Till total £141.22
17 customers
SATURDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 6
Books found: 4
At 10 a.m. a very pretty blonde woman appeared and introduced herself as Bethan, who had emailed me on the 9th. She seemed charming and bright, so I have offered her a few odd days between now and the end of the festival, depending on when Nicky can or cannot work.
A customer picked up a copy of a Lyn Andrews book and announced to her friend, ‘I am reading that on me Kindle at the moment.’ I sincerely hope she stumbled across my mutilated trophy Kindle and considered the potential implications that the e-readers might have on bookshops, but I genuinely doubt that her mind is particularly troubled by thoughts of any nature.
At lunchtime a customer with his left trouser leg rolled up to his knee and his right one at his ankle, and a flat cap, bought a book about tantric sex.
At Anna’s insistence I printed off ‘Missing Cat’ posters and distributed them about the town.
Supper with friends in the Isle of Whithorn, which largely consisted of loud arguments about the independence referendum. Anna, who initially had been against independence because of her understandable dislike of nationalism (her maternal grandparents were both Holocaust survivors; her grandfather was a prisoner in Auschwitz when it was liberated), seems to be coming around to the idea that nationalism and independence are not necessarily the same thing. Half of us at supper were pro-independence, the other half against it. If the result on the day is as evenly split as we were, then it should make for an interesting night as the votes are counted on the 18th.
One of the unlikely outcomes of the evening was a discussion about poetry. Christopher, our host, is a farmer who read pure mathematics at university, and the last person I would have suspected to have a passion for poetry. I have known him all my life, but until tonight I had no idea that he had even the slightest interest in anything other than rainfall statistics and crop yields. Tonight he recited Yeats’s ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’ by heart. It was extraordinary and surprisingly moving.
Till total £239
17 customers
MONDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Nicky couldn’t come in today, so I emailed Bethan and told her that she was welcome to work if she was free.
Our Amazon rating has dropped from Good to Fair, probably due to unfulfilled orders. Of today’s orders, one was sent to Belgium and another to Germany. This usually happens when sterling is weak, which it is at the moment, in part – so the anti-independence campaigners say – due to uncertainty caused by the referendum on Thursday.
Bethan turned up at about 1 p.m. I showed her around the shop and started her on tidying shelves, which has the twin benefits of making the shop look smarter and teaching her where the various sections are in the shop.