"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Closing The Catcher In The Rye, Veronika felt her heart to be at peace. The book always made her feel that perhaps people like her exists-that she isn't the only one who hates this judgemental world.
Getting out of the bed, she looked around her empty apartment. She missed her family and even some of her friends but she never regretted leaving everything and everyone behind and stepping towards her dream. Sometimes, it is necessary to leave places. No explanation. No reason. Just leave. It is a mental growth process, she believed.
Once she was ready for yet another 'we-will-cut-your-wings-if-you-try-flying' day, she got out of the apartment.
Walking around the second-hand bookstore "ChapterStacks", she noted down every tiny detail about the different people who came in. Few people came to sell their books (which is the most pathetic thing to be done with books, she felt.) and few to buy. There were also people who just looked around left. And then there was Veronika, the observer.
The door of the store opened and a boy about Veronica's age-17-entered. He carried 3 books in his hand. He obviously came to sell them, Veronika thought. She noticed the titles of the books: The Fountainhead, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Catcher In The Rye. Anger welled up inside her. How can someone give away such a brilliant book? She thought. She paced to the counter.
"Which part of The Catcher In The Rye you didn't like?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
"I am sorry, what?" The boy had turquoise colored eyes.
"Why are you selling such a brilliant piece of literature?"
"To answer to your first question, I hate the part where the protagonist thinks the world is terrible and develops a negetive perspective. Which, let's see, is throughout the entire book. The world already has a lot of pessimists and I don't need a character reminding me that, which answers your second question."
"I think the book is brutally honest about the world we live in. People actually clap for the wrong things."
The boy just stared. It was as if he couldn't comprehend what she was speaking.
Breaking the silence, Veronika said, "Look, I am just saying maybe you should read it again. In the process of re-reading you notice things that you didn't when you read it the first time."
"So are you selling them or not?" Veronika completely forgot about the shopkeeper, standing there and listening to their conversation.
"Just these two. I think I'll keep The Catcher In The Rye." The boy said handing the other two books.
He started to leave but then turned towards her and said, "Just because one day you find the world an obnoxious place doesn't mean you should have a negetive perspective about the world for the rest of your life. Everyone has their terrible days but that is it."
Veronika watched him leave. That day, she started writing her first novel.
