Otto's Dirty Book Store

Hubert was hungry. He was doing his pitiful wailing thing whilst waddling about the apartment.

“I’m hungry too but there is no food so stop pacing about and let me finish my work.”

Hubert, as usual, paid no attention to Nell and made his way to the spot behind the sofa where he liked to sit.

She tried to ignore the feeling as she stared at the laptop. Her stomach had stopped complaining several hours ago, presumably accepting the fact that there would be no more food today, so the growling protests had ceased.

The only thing worse than not eating was the thought that you were about to eat only to have it taken away, hope was a killer where food was concerned. Breakfast had been few crackers, nothing on them, and a glass of water. Under her shirt she could feel her ribs were pronounced more than was natural or appealing.

Hubert peered around the sofa in the corner of the apartment. His doleful eyes full of accusation, self-pity and the gnawing emptiness that Nell knew only too well.

She tried to make sure Hubert had enough fresh fish, he needed several kilos a day and the last had been consumed yesterday. She would have to get creative.

She closed the lid on her laptop, she was only two chapters in and she didn't love either of those. It had seemed so easy at the beginning but she had lost focus and what had been a great idea had morphed into something that she didn't recognise. She padded barefoot into the single bedroom and started to get dressed. Her clothes were stylish, from when she had a regular income, but they hung off her frame now, what had she been thinking with this writing nonsense?

Nell left enough water in the oversize bowl that was next to Hubert’s spot, opened the last can of tuna and watched with amusement as Hubert waddled over excitedly to consume the bounty.

She had one last look in the mirror as she sighed and gently patted his head.

“Be good my boy, I’ll be back later with some real fish, I promise.”

Hubert guzzled the last of the tuna and was pushing the already empty tin noisily around with his nose.

“Be quiet my boy” she said to the unhearing Hubert. “Him downstairs is already suspicious and I’m not supposed to have pets in here at all, least of all one like you.”

She closed the front door of the small apartment behind her, went down the two flights of stairs and stepped straight into the centre of the city.

In the coffee place, Jay was in his usual seat. His laptop acted as a shield to stop people sitting down and sharing his table, the free Wi-Fi kept him there nursing a single coffee every hour until Pedro gave him the standard ultimatum. “This is not a fucking library Jay, buy something else or piss off.”

“Hey,” Nell said to the top of his lowered head.

“What’s going on?” He looked up when he recognised the voice.

“You hiding from the coffee nazi?” Nell asked.

“He doesn’t appreciate me, he’ll be sorry when I sell this book. I might even say I wrote it in another coffee shop just to piss him off."

Jay noticed her empty hands. "No writing today?"

"I'm stuck Jay, I don't know how to get the story going again."

"You'll get there." He said, "maybe a day off will do you good."

“Hey Jay, you got any cash? I’m starved but I need coffee more at the moment, I‘ve got a headache from the withdrawal.”

Jay pulled the face he always pulled when Nell asked for money but stuffed his hand into his jeans anyway and pulled out a note.

“That’s my last so make it a small one.”

Nell smiled and stepped up the counter to join the short queue.

“Hey Pedro, how are you?”

“About to retire to the Caribbean from the profit I make off you and the boy wonder hiding over there.”

“Well, it’s your lucky day, I would like a small latte please” said Nell.

Pedro sighed, and stepped to the side as he started grinding beans and twisting dials as the chrome machine hissed and spat.

The place was busy but not packed, tourist season was almost over, and the city was slowly turning cold, quiet and grey. The snow would soon be here.

Pedro placed the cup on the counter without saying a word and Nell picked up the hot precious cargo to carefully make her way back to Jay.

“Tell the boy wonder to buy something or get out.” Pedro said to her back as she walked away.

“You’re not running a library here are you?” She shouted back without turning around.

Jay was typing as she sat down, brow furrowed. She did not interrupt, she hated when people did that to her when she was mid flow, when the words were pouring like cold milk into a frosted glass.

When he stopped and looked up at her she said. “I need money Jay. Rent is beyond due, the cupboard is bare and poor Hubert needs fish.”

“How is that thing still living in your apartment, how has nobody seen it yet?”

“Keep your voice down”, she implored. “Someone will hear you. "Anyway, when I’m a famous writer Hubert will have his own pool and he can swim and eat fresh fish all day.”

“You are a lunatic.”

“I like to think of myself as interesting and non-conformist.”

“Think of yourself how you like, you are still a lunatic.”

“Ok well, compliments aside, have you heard of anything I’m getting desperate.”

“How desperate?” He enquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Not that desperate you pervert, well not yet anyway.”

Nell drained her cup, it was hot but not too hot, sweet and bitter all at once. Whatever the coffee Nazi lacked in customer service he made up for with quality. Hopefully the headache would now subside she thought.

“I actually did hear of something, but I don’t know how you will feel about it.” Said Jay.

“OK Mr Writer you have successfully piqued my interest, what is it?”

Jay looked down again, “Forget it, you will hate it.”

“Come on don’t do that, what is it?”

The shop was getting busier now, the lunchtime rush was about to start. Jay nervously looked at the cold dregs in his cup.

“Otto needs some help with his brother.” He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“You are right, I’m not interested.” She said immediately. “Hang on, I didn’t know Otto had a brother.”

“He doesn’t like to talk about him, he’s got some issues” Jay pointed superfluously at the side of his head giving the universal sign of craziness.

Pedro had seen Nell had finished and came over to noisily make a point of clearing away the cups.

“There’s still some in that.” Jay lamented.

“Tough shit you’ve been nursing it for an hour, my Wi-Fi isn’t free you know, this building isn’t free, my family needs to eat too.”

Jay closed the lid on his machine. “Come on let’s go Nell, it smells funny in here anyway.”

Pedro ignored him and was wiping the table down before they had even stood up, he waved over to a pair of fat women hovering near the door. Nell suspected they would eat more in cake than she weighed so she couldn’t blame the little Spaniard.

Jay made a big fuss out of putting his laptop in his backpack and pushing past the other tables as they skulked outside.

Outside on the pavement Nell asked. “What kind of issues and what kind of help?”

Jay leaned in conspiratorially “Its nothing to do with the criminal stuff, you won’t be a leg breaker or anything.” He grinned.

“I’ll be a face breaker if you don’t belt up and tell me what the job is.”

“Want me to text him and say you’ll come by?” Said Jay.

“Its nothing illegal Jay, you promise?”

“Just go and see him, meet the brother and see what you think, I bet he’d pay well enough.”

“OK fine, I give up, where should I go?”

“You know his dirty book shop, he’s in the back there most days, I’ll text him now and let him know.”

“Great so I’m going to meet someone that I know for sure is a criminal, in a dirty book shop, on my own to do fuck knows what for a brother who is probably half wolf.”

“Well, I can’t argue with any of that” said Jay. “Except maybe the wolf part, anyway you like weird animals, look what lives behind your sofa.”

When Nell saw Otto's Book Shop up close she realised it looked exactly like you would expect a pornographic bookstore to look. The windows were opaque, as was the door, so that esteemed patrons could not be seen inside browsing for any dicks or tits they had not yet seen. She noticed the window frames were wooden and starting to rot as she used an elbow to open the door awkwardly, who knows who last touched this handle she thought, or where their hands had been.

As she pushed from the outside an unseen person pulled from the inside and Nell lost her footing. The man opening the door was startled and on edge, probably a default setting for anyone shopping in here she thought as the man sidestepped the now falling blonde young woman. She announced her arrival horizontally, finding herself face down on a carpet that contained stains of provenance she did care to think about. The mystery shopper gallantly disappeared down the street clutching his brown paper bag of filth.

“Who the fuck are you and why are you barging in here?”

Otto looked down at her as she scrambled to her feet.

“Sorry, I just tripped, Jay sent me over, I’m Nell.”

He slowly allowed his eyes to cast an approving look over her, his fat, sweaty face was full of thoughts she could read only too well as she broke eye contact only for them to land on a display of DVDs in a rack behind Otto which was labelled ‘Shitting’.

She saw a front cover, predominantly brown in colour, and forced herself to stare back at him. She realised that she did not know his second name, he was like Cher or Madonna because, like them, everyone knew who and what Otto was.

“Jay didn’t say you were this good looking.” The supposed compliment oozed out of him like pus from a sore.

He didn’t avert his gaze as he added “You don’t want to look after my dopey brother, you should work in here, under me.” He licked his lips lasciviously.

“What kind of help does he need, I didn’t know you had a brother?”

She steered the conversation away, she wanted to escape now, this was a mistake, his brother was probably a serial killer.

“I don’t advertise him on account of him being a retard.”

“What?” She was genuinely taken aback by this more than the rack of DVDs.

“Yeah he isn't right in the head, Mum dropped him a few times too many I reckon, she drank herself to death the stupid bitch and here I am baby sitting my retard brother.”

"Well its very good of you to do it."

"He's family isn't he, nothing more important than that, retard or not."

“Where is he?” Nell could hear the tremble in her own voice.

“Upstairs.” Otto gestured above his head with a fat digit.

“Can I meet him? Maybe I can help out.”

Nell looked around the store, not focussing on specifics but just to get the general layout, planning where and how she could escape. There was a doorway behind the counter which had an actual beaded curtain.

“Is it through there?” She gestured at the beads.

“Yeah, go up unless I can persuade you to stay here and work under me?"

Nell didn’t answer him as she pulled the curtains aside to reveal a filthy hallway stacked with boxes probably containing the stuff too gross to put on display she thought.

As she made her way up the narrow staircase she realised this could all be a trap, she could be walking into a ring of sex traffickers never to be seen again. She pressed on, despite herself, and came to a small landing.

“Door on the right.” Came Otto's booming voice from the store below. “Do not open the door on the left, you don’t want to see in there.”

Probably sex slaves thought Nell. Probably the room I am going to end up in after they knock me unconscious. She thought of Hubert and who would look after him if she got spirited away to the Middle East to be in a Harem. He would probably end up in a zoo she hoped.

She looked at the door on the left, it seemed sturdier and more substantial than the door on the right. She shuddered involuntarily as she reached down to the twist the knob.

----

Underneath the small apartment that Nell and Hubert lived in was a man called Hector. He lived alone, through choice he would tell people, even though the choice had been his ex-wife’s. His place had the same layout as Nells above him, there was a small dining table and a sofa in one room, a small kitchen and bedroom with attached bathroom off from the front door. The ceiling had hundreds of round little brown marks on it, like someone had been bouncing a dirty tennis ball continually.

The noise from above was getting worse. A slapping, scratching sound and then the occasional squawk. No chance a human was making this noise. He picked up his broom and prodded the handle hard against the ceiling.

“Stop that noise, I’m going to report you.” He screeched. “You see if I don’t.”

-----

As Nell opened the door slowly she was aware there was a television playing in the room. It sounded like a kid show, SpongeBob maybe?

“Hello” she said as she peered around the door with as little menace as she could muster.

She got no reply as the door fully opened. A chair had its back to her, facing a TV which did indeed have SpongeBob playing. She could make out the back of a head as it protruded over the top of the chair.

“Hi, I’m Nell, what’s your name?”

The boy in the chair stood up and turned around. He was younger than she had thought, maybe eleven years old. He was not dirty, but not clean, his clothes were not old but not new. He was not neglected but not cherished either.

“Why are you here?” His eyes were full of questions but somehow far away, not connected to the voice.

“Your brother thought you and I might be friends, would you like that?”

"You are funny looking." Said the boy matter-of-factly. "Your hair is weird and you smell like fish."

"OK." Said Nell, unsure how to react to this boy as she smelled her sleeve, Jesus he was right I do smell of fish she lamented.

"Peanuts and Walnuts are not nuts, they are seeds, did you know that?" He asked.

"Then why do they have nuts in the name why aren't they walseeds and peaseeds?" Was all she could think to say to this non sequitur.

The boy pondered this as he sat back down to watch the undersea world.

“I’m Daniel but you can call me Danny if you like.”

“Hey Danny, do you like the animals who live in the sea?” She gestured at the screen.

Danny became animated. "Did you know sharks have no bones?" He asked.

“Can you keep a secret Danny; I have a big one?”

The boy looked away from the screen and directly at Nell with a serious look. “I am great at keeping secrets, I never, ever tell.”

“Well first we need to get some money and go to the shops to buy some fish.”

“That’s not much of a secret I can get money any time.”

“How?” Said Nell.

“My brother never watches me, and the till has money from all the perverts.”

"So do you take money from the the till?"

"When I need to buy something, my brother is not very bright. When I told him about the walnuts he told me to shut up."

"So how do you do it?"

"All I need to do is distract him, tell him there is someone at the back door or something, he goes and looks, I open the till and take what I need."

“Would you like to come to home with me Danny? I want to introduce you to Hubert, I think you and he are going to be friends.”