"If you were a tad bit responsible we wouldn't be in this situation," said Julie. "I didn't know it was 3 days long".
"Sarah there was a freaking brochure on your table which said specifically that it is a THREE-DAY-EVENT".
"There is no need for shouting. I got it. I am sorry, I apologize," said Sarah while making a namaste sign over her head. "Now we will need to buy 3 dresses for you," said Julie contemplating her life decisions. "Wait, I just told you I bought one dress so we need to buy 2 dresses right".
"Honey you bought a wedding dress which you most definitely will not wear", said Julie with a sarcastic smile. "No.. I am saying I bought the cream one you know which has...".
"It's a FUCKING WEDDING DRESS! You are not wearing it to the launch event," said Julie in a threatening voice.
"Sorry to interrupt ma'am but we have reached the hotel", said the poor driver who had to listen to these women fighting throughout the journey. "Now go to your room and rest up quickly. We will leave for shopping after 30 minutes or so", Julie said to Sarah as she opened the door of the car and then asked the driver to take them shopping. "But ma'am I was only hired to take you to the hotel,'' the driver said. "Don't worry you will be fairly compensated for your troubles".
After a long shopping session which is hard to describe, Julie and Sarah went back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the mayhem that was going to take place tomorrow.
Shopping was mayhem in itself. It was similar to a mom dragging her kids to school for the first time. They cry, throw tantrums lying on the ground then cry some more, hold on to doors and handles to resist, scream and break things. Sarah is a grown-up so she doesn't break things now, "now" being the keyword here.
It was gonna be Sarah's 4th novel. She rose from nothing, a total nobody to an astounding writer known for her amazing and powerful female protagonists and the easy-to-understand and yet mesmerizing use of English. She was no less than a language wizard and people loved her novels but they loved her as an individual more. She used to tell embarrassing stories about her life in the interviews and how clumsy and irresponsible she was. Thousands of readers related to her and adored her. She was a star in the making only if her heart hadn't given up, she would have become an author people remembered for decades.
Sarah was trying to make coffee when she heard knocking on her door.
"Sarah! Wake up", it was Julie's voice. "I'm already up", Sarah exclaimed as she opened the door. "Wow, that's a surprise. You woke up on your own?", Julie said sarcastically. "Yeah it's kind of an important day for me so I thought of waking up early to get into a good mindset and why are you smiling..." Sarah stopped after seeing a little too wide smile on Julie's face. "Security called you to inform you about the arrival of books at the venue, didn't they, like 15 minutes ago?", said Julie with a wide smirk. "Fuck you Julie, you could've let me have this moment", Sarah sighed as she got busted of her lie. "You wouldn't wake up early even on your wedding day, assuming that someone would be stupid enough to marry you".
"Why you gotta hurt me like that Julie'', said Sarah while making a sad face. "Anyway there will be a makeup artist team coming to your room in like 40 minutes, so take a bath and get ready. Also, eat something light, a sandwich or toast along with that coffee", Julie said hurriedly as she had to do the prerequisites and set things up for the event. "Okay see you later", said Sarah as Julie left her room.
Sarah got ready for the launch event. When her car arrived at the venue of the book launch she was flabbergasted by the sheer amount of preparation going on there. "Hey Greg, what's exactly happening here?'' Sarah asked Gregory, a guy Julie hired to assist them during the launch event. "Ma'am these are the preparations for the convention that is going to take place along with your launch event," Gregory answered as he was stacking the books on the table adjacent to the one where Sarah was supposed to sit.
"This Place is huge. This mall was recently built, right?" Sarah asked. "Yes Ma'am, it is the opening of this mall so they arranged a big convention for publicity".
"I see...I see, I am sure many people will come".
"I bet thousands of people will come, like everyone in the radius of 50 miles. It will be good for the launch event and we will be able to sell a lot of books''. "Yes you are right Greg looks like you have had the experience of this kinda job," Sarah said.
"No Ma'am, actually this is my first time. I have been to a few launch events but this is my first time actively helping," Gregory answered as he completed the third pyramid stack of novels. "Oh nice, what do you normally do?" Sarah asked and instantly felt the guilt of asking such a question. "I work at a local bookstore, it's not very far from here. I get Mondays and Tuesdays off as there is no rush on those days". "Great! A bookstore is the best place to work, I used to work at the library of my college... part-time," Sarah said as she thought that Gregory was working multi-jobs since it was Monday and Julie might have hired him for 3 days.
"I agree, you get to meet a lot of interesting people at a bookstore or a library, same thing," said Gregory. Sarah nodded as she walked around a bit to get a better understanding of the geography. Preparation was going on in full swing. It was 9:30 and the opening of the book fair or more appropriately the convention was at 11 on the first day and 9:30 the following days. As Sarah was going around and around and around, Gregory came running to her.
"Ma'am the banner is here. Where do you wanna put it?" Gregory asked.
"Umm, I don't kn... Where is Julie?" Gregory shook his head in denial. Sarah and Gregory ran back to Sarah's counter.
"I guess just put it up there," Sarah pointed to the big pillar which was right behind the stall. "What do you say Greg, I mean where else would you put it".
"Well people are also hanging stuff from the ceiling but I guess we can put it on the pillar," Gregory suggested. "It's done then, put it on the pillar around the 5th tile, okay," Sarah said. The pillar was covered in big square tiles so the 5th tile was around 17 feet high.
"The Lost one huh?" said Diana Shelby, "Oh my god! Hello, it's nice to meet ya," Sarah panicked as Diana Shelby was her idol. Sarah started reading her novels when she used to work at the library in her freshman year.
"You have made quite a name for yourself Miss Sarah Jones," said Mrs. Diana.
"It was just pure luck, people seemed to like my writing which is bizarre because even I don't like my writing...ha ha ha," Sarah was screaming in her head and was second guessing everything, after all it's not every day you meet the person you look up to and they come up on their own to talk to you.
"Hmm, honey I doubt that because I've read your content and luck doesn't seem to be the answer to your success".
"You're flattering me, Mrs. Dian... Are you also signing books?" Sarah asked. "I am not but someone else will," Mrs. Diana pointed to another stall, a few meters away.
"Are you accompanying your friend?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, she is a good friend of mine but before that, she is my daughter," Mrs. Diana said. Sarah's pupils expanded and her eyes lit up. "Oh my god that's so amazing, it must be so heartwarming for you to see her writing her own novel".
"It is. She was working so hard for the past year and now she has finally done it. It's her debut novel".
"How old is she?" Sarah asked. "She turned 17 last month".
Sarah was not able to believe, "Mrs. Dian you need to tell me the secret to your beauty because you don't look like a mom of a 17-year-old". "Never heard that one before," said Mrs. Diana and both of them chuckled.
"Seventeen... Wow, that's young, even you started writing at a young age. You were 19 when your first novel came out", Sarah was trying hard not to look like a fangirl but there are some things you can't help.
"Indeed. Okay, you must be busy so I will leave you to it. It was a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Sarah Jones".
"No ma'am, the pleasure's all mine," said Sarah as Mrs. Diana walked away. "Oh my fucking god, I can't believe I just met Diana Shelby. I can't breathe". Sarah let out her anxiety from her nostrils. As time went by, Sarah greeted more authors and before she knew it, only 20 minutes were left for the event to start. Sarah came back from the washroom and saw Julie talking to Greg. She took a sigh of relief because Julie was nowhere to be seen since Sarah arrived and she was getting nervous. "Oh, there you are. Are you ready for the launch ev..." Sarah moved in for a big hug before Julie could finish her sentence.
"What the hell are you doing... You okay?" Julie asked as she patted Sarah's back. "Now I am okay, 'sniff sniff' you smell nice," Sarah said in a baby voice.
"Get off me," Julie pushed Sarah back gently. "We are done with all the preparations so just sit back and relax," Julie exclaimed. "It's easy for you to say because you don't have to interact with so many people".
"Shut up, wear a big smile, say lots of thank yous, and yeah one more thing, don't shake hands for more than 5 seconds with anyone. There are a lot of weirdos these days".
"Got it MAMA," Sarah slapped her face with both hands and took a big sigh, gulped in a 150ml water bottle, sat down at her counter, cracked her neck and knuckles, and clapped like she was a coach and her team that was about to enter the match. The whole mall went silent one minute before the opening, you could hear the overwhelming sound of people's footsteps outside the mall. Sarah imagined herself at the battlefront of war and felt the enemy moving in with a rumble of thunder as the walls fell down.
The book fair was on the ground floor and the entrance opened on the first floor so the only way to the book fair was either the stairs from the first floor or the lift from the underground parking. The silence turned into chaos. Everyone on the ground floor saw thousands of people move in and the whole mall was jam-packed with people within a few minutes. At first, only a few people arrived at the book fair but as time went by it also got filled with fans like the rest of the mall.
A group of 3 girls was the first to visit Sarah's counter. One of them was a big fan and the other two just tagged along. From 11 am to 3:30 pm Sarah signed hundreds of books, met with hundreds of fans, and had an absolute blast. Sarah was absolutely adored by her fans and one fan even brought her a whole set of Theon Robin's trilogy which she had always wanted as a kid but never got her hands on. It was too expensive of a gift and she couldn't accept it from a fan. Sarah did sign them when the fan insisted.
From 3:30 to 4 she took a break from signing and resumed again from 4 to 9 pm. When she returned back to the hotel she could hear her lower back, butt and right shoulder scream, which couldn't be heard in the loud chatter of the fair. It was an absolute success as they were able to sell over 55% of the books on the first day, so Julie ordered more books from the stash which were supposed to go elsewhere for sales. The following days were supposed to be more hectic as the fair would open at 9:30 instead of 11 like the first day.
The second day was even more soul-consuming. Sarah had to take painkillers because her back was killing her mood. They were sold out around 7 pm and the counter closed around 7:40. The Book Fair used to close at 9 pm but the whole convention used to shut down at 1 am. As Sarah was too tired to roam around the mall the previous day, she decided to visit different stalls of the book fair, bought a few books, and also got a few of them signed.
She had a good chit-chat with some fellow authors. Sarah wanted to have a tour of the whole mall but she didn't have enough energy to do so. She slept all the way to the hotel in the car.
'Knock knock knock', "Wake up it's 8 already" Julie screamed while standing outside the room. Sarah opened the door after a good 10 minutes. "How can you still be sleepy, you have been sleeping for like 10 hours now".
"Yeah yeah, I am awake now," said Sarah in a sleepy voice. "Get your shit together we are leaving in 40 minutes and yeah the copies of the book have already arrived at the venue," Julie was speaking louder than normal.
"Got it, I'll get ready," Sarah said as she closed the door. "If you sleep again, I swear to god I will murder you with my bare hands."
"Jesus Christ Julie!" screamed Sarah from the other side of the door.
"My editor is a disciple of Satan, do you know that?" Sarah said to her reflection in the big mirror that was on the right side of the bed. "AAAAAARRRHHHHH! Last day of the event. Let's goooooo," Sarah suddenly had a very strong urge to do 10 pushups. She jumped into a plank position and did some back muscle flex.
"Okay, here we go. ONE...TWO...THREE...FOUR...FIVE," Bam! Sarah fell on her face on the 6th one. She managed to turn her head sideways and didn't hit her nose on the ground. "Aaaah, hell ouch ouch ouch ouch," Sarah whined in pain and rolled around the floor.
"Why is my life a constant cycle of pain," Sarah screamed and jumped up to see if there was any mark left from the fall. "And fuck yeah, a big red mark on the cheekbone". Her makeup team tried their best to cover up the redness on her cheek. Sarah thought it would look like a natural blush, but to her surprise, it looked like someone had punched her in the face.
"Why the hell are you wearing so much makeup," Julie asked Sarah when she sat in the car to leave for the book fair. She told her the story of her workout and got scolded all the way to the mall. It was 9:22 when they reached the book fair. "Hey Greg, how are you doing," Sarah asked Gregory. "Pretty awesome, I am excited for the last day," Gregory answered. The mall once again went into silence just minutes before opening.
It was the third time but Sarah was still not familiar with the feeling. It was hard to explain, the whole mall and every seller at every stall stopped talking to create a cloud of serenity which broke the second clock hit 9:30 and people walked in. Sarah was the kind of person who gained happiness and energy from human interaction. She loved meeting fans and talking to them not only about her but about other authors and their works as well. As the day went by, Sarah signed hundreds of books, interacted with a lot of fans, took pictures, and enjoyed herself.
There was more crowd in the convention on the third day but the same could not be said for the book fair. The day went by smoothly without any need for painkillers and finally, it was 9 pm and people moved out of the book fair to the other parts of the mall. "How was your day," Julie asked Sarah as she patted her right shoulder.
"Good I guess," Sarah answered.
"Are you tired? Wanna go to the hotel and sleep for 24 hours straight?"
"I would love to," Sarah said as she stretched her body.
"Gregory let's wrap things up and Sarah, you can go sit in the car. I will be there in like 15 minutes…. Okay," Julie instructed.
"Well about that… I wanna actually tour the mall. I haven't stepped out of the Book Fair and I was too tired the previous days. So you should leave. I'll join you at the hotel later," Sarah said as she tidied up her counter.
"How will you come back if I take the car," Julie asked
"I will take a taxi home," said Sarah
"Where will you find a taxi? Just come with me or I will tell the driver to come back and pick you up," said Julie
"No need. There is a taxi station right next to the bus stand remember," said Sarah
"Right… Okay suit yourself, just don't get yourself killed"
"Yeah of course"
Julie helped Gregory pack up and Sarah left for the adventure. She sniffed all three floors of the mall and was absolutely mesmerized by the sheer amount of stuff available there. She wanted to buy a lot of stuff but was too tired and couldn't bear the thought of carrying heavy shopping bags around the mall. She bought a few figurines because they looked cute, not that she recognized any of those characters. She went to the food court of the mall and ate everything available with chocolate flavor. Sarah loved chocolates and 15th February was her favorite day of the year because she could buy Valentine's chocolates for up to 80% off.
After roaming around for about 2 hours and inspecting the convention, she got tired. It was past 11 pm so she left the mall and started walking towards the bus stand.
It was past 11 pm but the city was still breathing light. As she moved closer to the bus stand, the surroundings got much darker. "I thought the bus stand was closer… Am I lost?" When Sarah almost believed that she was lost, she saw a sign stating the bus stand 0.5 miles away and took a sigh of relief.
Continuing in the direction of the bus stand, she saw a dim light of a torch and on moving closer, she found a person sitting on the roof of a car reading something with the help of that torch. What kind of an idiot would sit on the roof of a car and read a book like that, must be a homeless person I guess. Sarah tried to move past the weirdo without making eye contact but her feet stopped naturally at the sight of a familiar book cover.
So this weirdo was reading a novel in the middle of the night sitting on his car's roof and that novel was 'The Lost One'. Sarah was intrigued and scared at the same time. "Is it that good of a book that you are reading it like that?" Sarah asked. The person pointed the torch at Sarah's face. "My eyes!" Sarah screamed.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry, you okay?" asked the person and lowered the torch beam. "I am fine," Sarah said as she recalibrated her eyes. "You were saying something about the book," asked the person. He wore half-decent clothes so he didn't seem like a homeless person. "Nothing. Sorry to disturb," Sarah said as she was uncomfortable and wanted to move out of the situation. As Sarah started to move or more appropriately run, the person called her "Wait, are you the author of this novel?" he said as he jumped from the car's roof.
"Noooo," Sarah said as she looked back. The guy was staring at the back of the book where her photo was printed.
"Oh my god! You totally are," the guy moved towards her and extended his hand for a handshake. "Hello, my name is Jayde, you remember we met... I got the book signed today," Jayde showed her the novel and her signature. "Oh hi, it's nice to meet you Jayde". Sarah was still not comfortable with the situation but her mind had stopped working.
"I just started reading the book and couldn't stop. The ending was very abrupt and not heartwarming so I was just trying to find out why it is so," Jayde blabbered out. "You already completed the novel?" Sarah asked as she couldn't make out what this guy was saying.
"I mean it was interesting at first but then it got boring around the 8th chapter, you know where the mc goes into the valley of the dead… Of course, you know, you wrote the whole freaking thing. So anyway, what I did was that I read the ending but I got very confused so now I was just reading the rest of the book".
"WHAT! You read the ending just after the 8th chapter"
"Yeah," Jayde said with conviction.
"Why? Nothing happens till chapter 8. It's just the beginning. Like wow, why would you do that," Sarah was not able to fathom that man's devilish behavior, who read the ending first.
"I just couldn't wait to read the ending… By the way, what are you exactly doing at this point in time? I don't think it's safe for a famous author like you to just roam in the streets in the middle of the night," Jayde said with concern in his voice.
"I was just going to my hotel," Sarah said and instantly regretted it. "Oh, where is that, I'll drop you in my car".
"No no no, I can't burden you like that," Sarah was scared and wished that she had left the place with Julie.
"Does it look like you would burden me, hell no, come on I'll give you a ride home and in return, you can answer my question because I have a shit ton of questions after reading your novel," Jayde said with enthusiasm and opened the passenger door for her.
"I don't think it's a good idea… I'll take a taxi," Sarah didn't want to enter the car of a stranger, especially a guy who read the ending of the novel first.
"Oh great. Hi, my name is Jayde Willamson. I am a professional taxi driver… Ha ha ha... You know what we should go and grab some coffee. I know a great place and you must be tired from signing all those copies, I can't have you walk on the road in the middle of the night. What kind of a fan would I be," Jayde said as he pushed Sarah in the car and she couldn't really resist.
Sarah kept remembering the last words of Julie: "Just don't get yourself killed".