We went to Paragraph Books, a bookstore near McGill, when we visited Montreal over the Victoria Day weekend. I couldn't go swimming, so, while Jaime took the kids to the hotel pool, I went for a walk and found myself in this wonderful bookstore that I used to haunt when I was a student at McGill.
There were t-shirts with covers of classic books that I desperately wanted to buy for Aveen and Amrita. Alas, while I wanted those t-shirts, I didn't know if Aveen and Amrita would want them.
I browsed through the beautiful books. Inspired by the movie The Jane Austen Book Club, I bought the remaining four Jane Austen books that I didn't already have. Beautiful Penguin and Vintage editions, all for less than $12. I also bought a Pride and Prejudice tote.
I am not the only bookstore lover in my family. When I got back to the hotel room, Jaime, Aveen and Amrita wanted to go to the bookstore. As I thought, Amrita wasn't too keen on the Charlotte's Web t-shirt I wanted for her. She hadn't read it and didn't like the colour grey.
We still spent almost an hour looking through the shelves and choosing books. As we were about to go, a t-shirt caught Aveen's eye - a soft, cotton green shirt with the cover of One Flew Over the CooCoo's Nest.
"Are you sure you want that one?" I asked Aveen. "It is about a bunch of people in a mental institution." I thought he should be informed.
"That's okay. I want it."
If anyone could pull it off, it was Aveen.
Okay.
Amrita was having second thoughts about leaving the bookstore without a t-shirt if her brother was going to get one. She suddenly found a Charlotte's Web t-shirt with a baby blue background. That was clearly different than grey.
"I want this one," she said.
"You do?" I was delighted.
They wore their new, literary t-shirts to school as soon as we got back home.
Amrita came back home that day saying that so many of her friends said they loved that book.
"We should read it," I suggested. Amrita had been reluctant to read the book before but she agreed, eager to be able to answer her classmate's question about whether the pig dies in the end.
Ever since then, Aveen, Amrita and I cuddle in bed every night with Charlotte's Web. Jaime sometimes listens too.
It has been years since I had the book read to me by my father, and I had forgotten the story. I also never realized how beautifully written it is, and what a pleasure - how effortless - it is to read it out loud. (Bad Kitty and fairy books are so hard to read out loud.)
I never realized how much like Wilbour I am. I could relate to his loneliness before he meets Charlotte in the chapter called Loneliness, as there have been times through these months that I have felt like that at home. I could relate to Wilbour's fear of dying, and of his dependence and trust in Charlotte.
We haven't finished it yet. But I already know that I can also relate to the book's ultimate message on the strength of friendship and the continuance of life.
