Sara Sparks: A Novel

Ch. 2A - Shoes. Need I say more?

2005-11-03T22:55:11Z

Best laid plans. She'd had another less-than-focused day at work. She had, however, at least found books for the next day's storytime, as well as a short craft. She just had to make a sample in the morning, and she was sure that would go just fine.

That settled, even if she did feel a little guilty twinging in her conscience for neglecting her job, she pushed on to the current matter at hand.

"I have nothing to wear on a date," Sara announced grimly. "Nothing."

"Nonsense," Anne said confidently. "You have plenty of clothes."

"Yes, but I have no one outfit that will make him sit up and go "wow." I have no 'wow' outfit." Sara sat on the bed, slumped.

"Then we'll make one," Anne said. "Try, um, try this." She pulled out a long grey jersey skirt and black silk top and matching jacket.

That outfit was quickly nixed, as were the next six.

"Okay," Anne said. "Okay. Maybe this?" She held out the hangers and Sara accepted them. Really, Anne was being quite patient, especially given that Sara was rejecting perfectly nice outfits with, "It's just not IT," but couldn't define what IT was.

Sara changed outfits and felt it. A slow smile spread over her face. "This is it," she said.

"Are you sure?" Anne asked, warily. "You haven't even seen it."

"This is it," Sara repeated, turning towards her mirrored closet door. The soft grey pants flattered her size ten curves, giving her a well-defined waist and draping beautifully down her legs. Her maroon lace top let tantalizing glimpses of her black velvet camisole peak through, with a wee bit of skin to boot. The dark red set off her light brown hair perfectly and she nodded, satisfied.

"Now, I need shoes."

Anne groaned.

***

Sara floated through the next morning. Her craft was done, her books pulled, and she was ready for her after-lunch crowd.

"Hey, there."

She looked up and saw Jason in front of her desk. "Is the computer down again?" she asked. She hadn't noticed any such thing, and she would hope that she wasn't that out of it.

"I was just checking on it," he said. "It's still up."

"Oh, good," she said, relieved.

Jason picked up her brown mouse puppet, that had been lying on the stack of books. "Cute. You make this all by yourself?" His green eyes twinkled teasingly.

"I sure did," she said. "Open his mouth."

He followed her instructions and laughed. Inside was a cardboard chocolate chip cookie.

"If You Give A Mouse a Cookie," she explained.

"Sounds silly. Is that the book Meg stole from out under me?" he asked.

"That's the one," she grinned. "It should be fun."

"You don't usually work on Thursdays, do you?" he asked, setting the puppet down.

Sara blinked, confused at the topic switch and then her mind blanked. "Oh, please tell me today isn't Thursday. It isn't, right?"

"Oh, no, no, it's Friday," he grinned. "Sorry. But I saw you here yesterday."

"Oh, right," she said. "No, I don't. I picked up some extra shifts, so I'll be around pretty much every day the next few weeks."

"Good to hear," Jason said, smiling. "I'll see you later, then."

It wasn't until recounting it to Anne later that afternoon during their pre-date call that she realized it had been their longest conversation to date, and the first time she hadn't felt tongue-tied around him.

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Chapter 1B: A conflict is introduced. No, really. Read carefully.

2005-11-02T19:27:05Z

Sara wandered back downstairs, still in a daze. She sat at her desk, swiveling in the rolly chair, reliving the surprise meeting in her head.

"Sara, is that you? Sara? Miss Sara?"

She blinked her eyes and focused on the little blonde girl, about four years old, in front of her desk. "Meg, hi, sweetie."

Meg pouted at her. "I was calling your name, Miss Sara, and you didn't hear me."

"I'm sorry," Sara said. "I'm ready now. What are you looking for today?"

She quickly helped Meg find her books, chatted with her mother, and waved goodbye as they headed out.

"Nice work, Miss Sara."

Sara turned around and found Jason Murry, the library's extremely good-looking technology coordinator, behind her, smiling. "Thanks, Jason," she said, surprised. "Meg's a cutie, isn't she? In every week like clockwork."

"So if I asked for a very funny book, silly, even, with a mouse, would you help me, too?" Jason grinned.

"How long have you been waiting?" she asked. "I'd point you after Meg, since she has the one I know about!"

"I guess I'll just settle for some computer time, then," Jason said. "Cathy called and said that one of your computers is frozen on a game and won't reboot."

"Oh, no," Sara frowned. The library's computers were old and donated, and while it was great to have them, one of the three was down more than it was up. "Again? Well, you know the way." She sat back down in her seat, determined to actually get some work done for her next storytime. She was pretty sure it was set for Friday morning, and she didn't even have a theme yet.

She did a search in the system for mice, Meg's requests still stuck in her head. She wrote down a few possibilities, and then saw a familiar author. Richard Peck! She and Luke had traded Richard Peck's books all through junior high. She wrote down a few titles she remembered most clearly and went to pull them. Blossom Culp books, Voices After Midnight...she spent the next two hours skimming through the books, delighting in them all over again. Before she knew it, it was time to close and she still didn't have her storytime books ready.

-Damn, she swore to herself, flying around the basement, turning off computers and collecting stray books for the pages to put away the next day. Well, tomorrow was a new day, and she'd be ready to keep her mind on work then.

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Ch. 1A: Girl Meets Boy. Again.

2005-11-02T04:49:37Z

"Date! Date!" Sara Sparks babbled into her cell phone. "Date!"

"Sara? is that you?"

"Anne, I have a date! A real live date!" Sara squeezed the phone. She was fully aware that she sounded, at best, twelve years old. She didn't care.

"Sara, that's wonderful! Who? Oh, tell me it's that guy from work."

As her best friend for nearly ten years, Anne Martin had heard all about the various men in Sara's life. Various meaning the one guy she occasionally talked to at work. Sara was quiet and a homebody. She didn't run into many men at her job in a children's library - at least not single ones. She liked to play up the few interactions that she racked up. But this time, she didn't need to play anything up.

"No, actually. This is Luke. Luke Winters? I was friends with him in junior high. We traded books all the time."

"The dance guy? The DANCE guy asked you out?" Anne sounded incredulous. "What are the odds? You told that story for years."

Sara laughed. "It wasn't years."

"Years," Anne insisted. "Oh it was awful," she said, mimicing Sara. "He was so sweet. He asked me to dance the next slow song. It was near the end of the night. Suddenly, Zoe ran up - she had an emergency. A make-up emergency! I followed her to the bathroom and I missed the last slow dance of the night. I missed my chance at a relationship with Luke!" Anne finished. "You need a new ending now. Looks like your chance was only on hiatus."

"I guess so," Sara grinned. "God, I just can't believe this."

"So, when did it happen? Where did you see him?" Anne pressed for details.

"I was walking to work!" Sara exclaimed. "Just walking, reading that book you lent me. I like it, by the way. It's really interesting -"

"Sara, focus," Anne cut in. "Book later. Man now."

"Right. He was out running, and he almost ran into me. He recognized me, we chatted, and he asked me out." Sara smiled at the memory. "I accepted, he said he'd see me then, and ran off. And then I ran to work." She'd been a few minutes late, too, and had gotten some pointed looks, but opted to not share that part of the story.

"I'm so excited for you," Anne said. "I'll come over tomorrow and we'll pick out your outfit. This is what you've been waiting for!"

"It's definitely been long enough," Sara agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Sixish?"

"Sounds good," Anne said, and hung up.

Sara felt like dancing around the break room. She hadn't managed to land a date since graduating from college years before. Every time she met a man she was even remotely attracted to, she had no idea what to say to him. It followed, then, that he said nothing and left quickly. Nothing to worry about here, though - Luke was an old friend, a person she had always felt comfortable with.

He'd been cute in junior high, but not so cute that she got tongue-tied. Now, though. Now, if he hadn't recognized her and jogged her memory, she wouldn't have gotten a syllable our. He was taller now, of course - she had had to look up to him. His face had thinned out, grown more mature and handsome than she'd ever have thought. His eyes, though, twinkling brown and smiling, were still the same.

Sara smiled. Yes, she was looking very forward to seeing him again.

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