Jayde walked into the living room and saw the green light on the battery charger. He put the charged battery in his camera, Casio QV-10 that he had bought the previous year but had hardly taken any pictures from it. He went to his room with the camera and carefully packed it in its case and put it in his bag.
He packed all the necessary things that he was going to take to the book fair. The book fair was being organized in a mall that had been built just a few months before so the motive behind the whole book fair was promotional propaganda.
"Finally all things are packed now", Jayde took a sigh of relief. He was ready to hit the road. The destination was about an hour away from his house and the mall was going to open at 9:30 am. He planned to start his car engine at 8 am so he could get there without facing any traffic, after all, it was Saturday.
He took the luggage which was one bag containing his sunglasses, chewing gum, chips, camera, wallet, and the most important thing, the day-pass. He put the bag on the passenger seat of his car then went back to his living room and sat on the couch.
He glanced at the clock on the front wall "4:33 am….shit why did I wake up this early". He didn't really wake up early cause he didn't sleep in the first place. He was too excited to sleep like a kid going to a picnic. Then he picked up the pamphlet of the book fair and started looking at the authors that would be present there.
Jayde rolled over and fell down from the couch "Ouch, goddammit... screw you couch. Why are you so damn high!" said Jayde punching the couch while lying on the ground. And then his eyes went to the clock to check the time "FUCK!" he screamed. He jumped from the ground and ran to the bathroom to take a bath and wear the clothes that he had ironed last night. After getting ready he dashed out of his house and got in his car. It was 10:16 am when he started his journey.
He reached at 10:57 am after speeding the whole distance to his destination just to find out that all the parking spots were already full. There were cars parked even half a mile away from the mall. He reached a bus stand after some time, found a spot, and parked his car looking here and there. "I hope I don't get a ticket".
After walking 1.2 miles from the bus stand back to the mall, he started walking up the stairs of the mall. He was very excited until he saw a guy in a Pikachu costume. "What the hell!", he said to himself and then walked through the doors. He was dumbstruck to see the scenery of the place and got to know that it was not just a book fair that was taking place but it was a whole convention of movies, cartoons, anime, comics, and God knows what else. There were thousands of people and many were dressed as fictional characters.
Tears came to his eyes. He found heaven where it wasn't supposed to be. He went around the whole place like a kid in a toy store. There were 4 floors and on every floor, there were stalls of posters, action figures, amazing food, cassettes, artworks, costumes, and more cool stuff. Jayde stopped at one of the stalls which was extended from quite a big shop. The whole place was filled with anime merchandise such as pokemon, Dragon Ball GT, mobile suit Gundam, and many more.
Pokemon had started to air earlier that year and had taken the world by storm. There were many pokemon items and collectibles to pick but Jayde was not very fond of the story. "Your child turns 10 and you are like oh my god happy 10th birthday, here's your gift, a questionable creature whose tail is on fire, isn't it cute. Now go on a journey in the woods fighting strangers and don't ever come back", said Jayde in a very important office meeting about how the company can increase their sales using the merchandise of popular tv shows such as Pokemon.
He was looking around and his eyes got glued to a certain figurine. He took off his glasses like a boss to catch a better look. "Can I see that?", he asked one of the three shopkeepers. "Yeah sure, it is really an amazing piece", said the shopkeeper handing the box to Jayde. "Indeed, what is the price of this beauty", asked Jayde while he looked at the figurine with narrowed lids. "Oh, that will be 30 $".
"Ohkay that's quite hefty", said Jayde. He had bought many figures before but this one was quite expensive. "You won't find a more detailed Sailor Moon figure in the whole United States, trust me your daughter will love it".
"...Yeah, I am sure she will ha ha ha" Jayde realized a grown-ass man was standing with a Sailor Moon figurine.
"Are you buying?" asked the shopkeeper, "yes of course", said Jayde with an awkward smile. Even though he had no daughter but he had to buy that Sailor Moon figurine. The shopkeeper packed the figure in a bag and gave it to Jayde. "Here you go, sir would you like to buy a barbie too".
"No no no it's fine", said Jayde but still the shopkeeper showed Jayde the latest barbie. "You can even color it's hair and even add glitter".
"Really", asked Jayde while examining the barbie. "Shit, this plastic doll is looking finer than most women these days" Jayde thought. He looked at the shopkeeper in the eyes and said "pack this one too".
After that, he went to many more stalls and shops that were set up all around and bought many souvenirs such as a Goku costume, a spiderman watch which was supposed to be for 4-year-olds, a batman mask, superman's cape, a sonic pillow, Johnny Bravo's glasses, and a few action figures. While moving up and down the whole place, he stumbled upon the video games section.
It was like another dimension in itself. Big action figures hanging from the ceiling, endless stalls full of games, consoles, more action figures, amazingly detailed posters, many games to enjoy, and whatnot. He went crazy. It was heaven inside heaven and Jayde was loving it. Jayde bought two bags full of video games like Duke Nukem, Super Mario 64, Elder scroll 2, Tekken 3, and a new Nintendo 64.
"I came here for the book fair. It's been over 5 hours and I haven't been to the book fair yet", Jayde thought to himself while eating cotton candy on a bench with 4 bags full of stuff. Before going to the books section he went back to his car to dump all his bags in the back seat very carefully. While he was on his way back to the mall he encountered some hippies that blocked his way. "Sir, would you like to try a cigarette dipped in acid", said one short girl wearing a rainbow top while holding a few cigarettes to Jayde's face.
There were seven of them. All were wearing the weirdest and brightest combinations of colors. Moreover, long hair full of colorful beads, piercings, and many more questionable things. "How old are you young lady", asked Jayde as the girl looked like she was 14. "I am 18 Sir", said the girl, and all of them started laughing and Jayde joined them shortly after. "No way she is 18", Jayde thought to himself.
He took one cigarette and asked how much. A tall guy at the back yelled "10 bucks". All of them started giggling again. "But for you sir, only 1 dollar", said the girl. "It's a steal man, take it", added another guy. Jayde bought one cigarette and then went straight to the mall. "God bless you man", said the tall guy when the group and Jayde departed.
Jayde went straight to the place where all the authors were signing their books and unfortunately, the place was jam-packed with people. He looked here and there but every author's desk was followed by at least 100 fans, most of them holding two or three books in their hands. "Oh man, it's gonna take at least 2 hours in the queue till I reach any author", he thought and started exploring the place. There were again many stalls all around the place. This time, filled with new as well as old and used books. Places like these are the best if you wanna buy lots of books to fill up your shelf at a cheap price.
"Would you like to buy a few books? They are unbelievably cheap", said a woman sitting in a fairly big stall full of books while Jayde was going around the whole fair. "Why not, what do you have", asked Jayde after he abruptly stopped from his powerwalk. The woman greeted him with a big smile. "I got many as you can see, would you like to see some best sellers from this year love". "Sure", said Jayde while he looked to the right where so many people were taking autographs from their favorite authors.
The woman put a heap of books on the counter and started going through them. "Have you already read the Chamber of Secrets?" asked the woman.
"Oh, the Harry Potter one? Yeah I did". "Okay, and did you read this book", the woman asked while pointing to a book. "My Name Is Red...no I haven't". "You should give it a try" she insisted. After inspecting the cover art of the book and a few pages Jayde said, "Okay I'll take this".
After an hour or so of fooling around, Jayde found himself standing in a line with a bag full of old and new books.
"Don't you love the way she explains things in her novel?" asked a guy who was standing right behind Jayde. He looked at him and said, "Yeah it's amazing how she brings about any character to life".
"That's what I am talking about dude, her first novel 'See Ya Tomorrow' was beautiful. I loved the character Lily. I am telling you dude, Sarah Jones is my favorite female author of the period. I just can't wait to read her new novel", said the guy with too much enthusiasm. "Yeah me too", said Jayde, totally agreeing with the person.
Up until this point, Jayde didn't even know which author he was going to meet because he just stood in the queue with the least number of people. " 'The Lost One' by Sarah Jones ", read Jayde which was written on a big poster that was hung up on a pillar. After about 30 mins of standing, he reached the number two spot and bought a book from the pile of fresh books that were on the counter adjacent to the author's counter.
"It's a dream come true to finally meet you", said Jayde with a weird soothing voice while shaking her hand. He had a habit of using that kind of made-up voice in office meetings or while talking to the clients. He thought it made him sound more professional, not gonna lie it kinda did.
"Oh no, pleasure is all mine". "I loved your first novel. It was umm...how can I put it...see it was so good that I don't even have words to explain", said Jayde. "I am so glad to know that you loved it so much", said Sarah with a big smile. "Lily was my favorite character from See Ya Tomorrow", said Jayde while Sarah was signing the novel that Jayde just bought. "Lily was my favorite character too, she was so fun to write", said Sarah with an angel-like smile while she handed over the book back. "I am sure I will enjoy this one too", Jayde whispered and left the stall.
Jayde felt like he was some kind of badass deceiving her. He was laughing like a villain in his mind. "Wait isn't that Casio QV", said a stout guy that came almost running towards Jayde. "Yes it is", said the guy, "can I take a look, I am planning to buy one for myself". "Why not, here... take a look", said Jayde as he gave the camera to the man, "The whole day is over and I didn't even take a single picture", Jayde thought to himself. "Cool man, thanks for the heads up", said the guy as he handed over the camera to Jayde and then went his way.
He had a sudden urge to take some pictures and when he pointed the lens around all he could see was people. After doing a 360 degrees he stopped, focused, and clicked a pic just to realize the flash was on. The photograph was of the stall where Sarah Jones sat. Everyone looked his way including Sarah and then he knew it was time to flee.