Free Lila Blue by Annie Katz Page A

effortlessly. The smell of
living yeast and flour was very comforting.
    Along the front of their store was
a glass display case full of fresh scones, donuts, giant cookies, and all shapes
and sizes of bread and rolls.
    On the top of the counter was a
loaf of bread that looked like a life-sized bunny rabbit. It was crouched down
with its ears resting against its back, and its eyes were plump raisins.
    Paul gave us a tour of the oven
room and storage area in the back, and then he handed me a paper bag full of
bread and cookies, on the house.
    The same thing had happened when
Lila had introduced me to Franny, the flower and gift shop lady, the day
before. Franny wouldn't let us leave until she'd given Lila fresh red
carnations for her hair and a bouquet of orange lilies for me, on the house.
    Back in Lila's shop, I said,
"Don't people use money here?"
    Lila laughed. "I cut
everyone's hair, so we have a casual barter economy. It's more fun than
money." Lila and all the Rainbow Village people did seem to enjoy each
other and their work.
    Lila's village was like a fairy
tale compared to the way my mom worked. Janice was always exhausted and
stressed about her job, and her coworkers were always lying or stealing or
fighting over tips or having accidents. Lila worked in heaven and Janice worked
in hell.
    Some days, instead of going to the
shops, I stayed at the beach house with Chloe and Zoe, who turned out to be
great companions when I wanted to talk to someone about what I was reading. And
reading was mostly what I did through the next week.
    I gathered interesting titles from
the top shelf of the Crow's Nest library first. Lila had science fiction and
fantasy up there. Mysteries, biographies, and some westerns and historical
novels were on the second shelf. Next came psychology, physics, biology,
environmental science, geography, natural history, archeology, and other
college stuff.
    The weird thing was, Lila hadn't
even gone to college, except barber college in Portland. When I asked her about
it, she said she'd tried a few college classes, but she decided books were her
best teachers. She said sometimes college teachers had limited life experience
and that lack warped their judgment.
    I agreed with her there. Of all my
teachers so far, only two seemed as smart as I am, so what does that say about
the profession?
    When I shared my observation with
Lila, she laughed and said, "Maybe it says something about you."
    On the bottom shelf of the
bookcase, resting on the built in drawers below it, were the books about
philosophy, religion, and art, which Lila said were the foundation of
civilization. She had several versions of the bible and copies of other
scriptures she'd mentioned to me, like The Bagavad Gita , The Tao te
Ching , The Koran , The Teachings of Confucius , and The
Buddha's Four Nobel Truths . She also had books by Plato, Socrates, Rumi,
Wendell Holmes, Florence Scovil Shinn, Louise Hay, and Benjamin Franklin. A
thin paperback called The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment caught my
eye as well.
    The art books were heavy glossy
coffee table books with gorgeous pictures of great art and commentaries in
small print about the artists' life and times. The art books made me wish
Janice liked to read, because I thought she would really enjoy them. One time I
heard her tell a boyfriend if she were rich she'd have a huge house filled with
modern art.
    I didn't know how long I was going
to stay with Lila, so I concentrated on the top and bottom shelves of her
library. I was beginning to wish summer vacation would last forever.
    I talked with Shelly nearly every
day on the phone. Salty Dog taffy was a hit at the lake house in Wisconsin.
Soon after they got it, Shelly sent me money and a shopping list of which
flavors to send, so I returned to The Salty Dog. When I walked in, Les told me
the job offer was still on. I smiled and told her no thanks. To myself I thought,
I already have a job wearing a nice little groove in Lila's beach