this weekend is the last weekend.....

i didn't write yesterday because i was a little overwhelmed by some comments that someone wrote in response to my blogging. it's interesting, i started this blog to really "talk" to my family and friends because they all call and want to talk about how i'm doing, and somehow, someone out there is reading it who doesn't think i should be talking at all. at first, i thought that meant i should stop writing, but this morning woke up and remembered why i was writing. so i wouldn't forget important things about the store and how i was feeling and to communicate with the people that love the store and eleanor and i.

i warned chris not to let his daughter ellie read the blog because of this particular story. so...chris don't let ellie read this blog.....

shortly after we moved the store from portsmouth to norfolk, we started to see some regular customers immediately. one guy came in on a sunday when it was just me working, and the store was pretty full. there were maybe 8 people in there, all at the front of the store. he looked around, was always really pleasant and always carried a backpack. he always asked us to hold the backpack so that we didn't have to worry about him stealing. we always told him we didn't care, and he always insisted.

that sunday, this dude asks to use the restroom. i send him back to the dungeon of a restroom and he goes back there for probably half an hour. i didn't check on him that day, at some point i thought that he had left because it was a long long time and there were lots of customers in and out.

the next morning chris and i opened the store. the guy comes back as soon as we open and in a rush asks if he can use the restroom again. we understand the idea that you really have to pee in the early morning because chris and i routinely finish off a pot of coffee between the two of us in an hour. he goes back there and is gone for twenty minutes.

chris has to pee. i have to pee. we argue over whether we have missed him leave. we want to check on him but it might not be pretty back there and we might embarrass him and ourselves. finally, it's agreed that i will go back and see if he's still there. i get in my office and notice that the bathroom door is ajar. not totally open though. so i go back and chris and i debate some more whether or not he has left.

by this point, we both really really have to pee. we don't want to go to anyone else's bathroom because we have ours and generally, we know that the people peeing in there are friends, good customers, ect. i go back again.

he hadn't left. he had left the door open though. he had proceeded to strip down to buck naked, no socks, no shoes, no shirt, and was sitting in the bathroom masturbating! the best part is that when he looked up at me from where he was sitting, and when i shut the door and said i thought it was time for him to leave the bookstore, he calmly said, "oh, sorry it took me so long."

i instantly went and told chris what i had seen and what had happened, and we were both totally confused as to what to do next. we called the police department of course, considering the proximity of the restroom to the kids room. we waited for him to leave and a detective to call us back. he strolled out about three or four minutes later, raised his hand on the way out and said again, "sorry it took me so long."

this guy we affectionately call Mr. Bates at bsb. a few months after the incident the detective assigned to the case called and asked if i thought i could identify the guy in a photo line up. it seems that they had caught a guy in northern virginia masturbating in a bookstore...he told them that he had traveled the state by bus and stopped at small bookstore's along the route and did his thing. it's an interesting story... i thought i was excited by books!

-susie