Andrea at riverrun

Today was Andrea's second day of work at riverrun. Her grandfather gave her the reins.
On the first day she learned about packing orders. The packer is aiming for neat, secure packages - the kind I never quite mastered. The packer has to watch out too. Watch to be sure the books ordered go to the actual person who ordered them rather than someone else who ordered something different. Watch to be sure you don't slice yourself up with the very sharp cardboard cutter. Watch to be sure the packages are entered in the log.
Andrea did all that beautifully on the first day.
On the second day Andrea learned how to do a box list. This means you squeeze through narrow passageways and reach way up over your head for heavy boxes of books. You carry them elsewhere, open them up, and check the contents against a list of what is supposed to be the contents. You resolve discrepancies.
Andrea did that all beautifully on the second day.
The thing is though, that when you're given the reins, there are more than 2 days worth of lessons that you should know. She hadn't been shown the map of the store, so she couldn't help customers locate books. She knew there was a riverrun website, but not the address, so she couldn't satisfy an impatient telephone inquirey. (riverrunbookshop.com) She hadn't been shown how to work the cash register, so customers had to supply exact change, which she laid out neatly in front of the register.
Why did a 16 year old with 2 days' experience have the reins anyway?
Because Chris got an irresistable call from a house with a library available that day only. It was a library entirely in Hungarian and Chris does not actually read Hungarian.
"Andrea, there's a library that sounds promising. Do you mind holding down the fort for a couple of hours?" She didn't. Not even when it turned out to be for the whole day. I came down to help her close.
"So. Your grandfather didn't make it back," I said to her.
She laughed. "No. And he sounded ecstatic when he told me he was delayed."
Indeed that part of the book business - the part of going into houses and buying books - is his favorite. It the ecstatic part.