Porcelain Touch
PORCELAIN TOUCH – October 1, 2026 – Middlebury, Vermont, USA
Back from her lunch break, Minerva Wonderli began her usual circuit through the bookstore to make sure things were in order. She strolled slowly past the in-store café near the entrance, counting croissants and Danishes and estimating the amount of coffee sold by the number of cups still in the supply stack. Satisfied, she smiled at her newest part-time employee, Samantha, who busily sorted teabags.
When Minerva bought Rook’s Nook Books many years earlier, food and drinks were prohibited inside. Customers were expected to walk in, do a bit of browsing, and then buy their books. It was not supposed to be a library or hangout spot. But things had dramatically changed. In order to compete with Amazon and online shopping, Minerva embraced the idea that Rook’s Nook was a magical destination spot. She began selling food. She tore out some of the bookshelves to make room in the middle of the store for a lounging area with comfy chairs and sofas that surrounded a fireplace.
On a snowy winter afternoon, there was no cozier way to spend an afternoon than cuddled up with a book Minerva hoped you might buy. During the spring and summer months, the fireplace was extinguished and the hearth covered in welcoming wildflowers and long grasses. A playful children’s section beckoned from the back of the store, which included a wooden train table and rocking horses. Toys were interspersed with books on the shelves.
In the fiction section, an entire corner was dedicated to fantasy titles. Swords and shields hung on the walls. A fire breathing dragon inside a glass case roared with the push of a button. Pendants, rings, and simple medieval costumes were displayed in some of the most valuable sightlines. Minerva used to scoff at selling that kind of peripheral merchandise but now it kept the doors open.
After a round trip around the store, which included reshelving a dozen books left on countertops and tables, Minerva settled behind the main sales counter. She was a natural bookworm at heart but consciously avoided spending more than three hours per day reading. She liked discovering new people just as much as new stories and she dressed in ways that made her look friendly and approachable. Since it was October, she wore earrings with tiny dangling pumpkins and bib overalls that might be found on a scarecrow. A pair of reading glasses lay permanently tangled in the thick, curly hair above her forehead.
The sales counter rose to chest height and faced the café near the entrance doors. The store’s two bathrooms sat behind the counter, which meant that anyone using them had to walk past Minerva. Not long after returning from lunch, she was ringing up a customer when a young woman wearing a Middlebury College sweatshirt walked by the counter. Her head remained buried in a Victorian romance novel and her feet moved via automatic pilot.
Minerva recognized that the college student was headed to the bathroom and she interrupted the sales transaction in order to intercept the girl’s path. After the sleepwalking reader almost bumped into her, Minerva waved for attention and then pointed to a sign on the bathroom door that read, “No Books Inside.” The girl looked at the sign as if she did not understand.
In a patient and quiet voice that no one standing on the other side of the sales counter could hear, Minerva said, “You can’t take that book in the bathroom unless you’re sure you’re going to buy it.”
“I like it, but I’m not sure yet I’ll buy it.”
“Then it has to stay outside.”
“But why?”
Minerva lowered her voice further. “Once you go into the bathroom and use the toilet and you’re touching the book, well it becomes kind of tainted. I call it the Porcelain Touch.”
A look of realization spread across the book reader’s face as Minerva continued. “It’s king of gross to think about the, well, you know, the organic matter you might be spreading around.”
The girl nodded her head and blushed. “Yeah, I get it.”
“Because once something has the Porcelain Touch it can transfer to other things.”
“Right. Okay. I obviously wasn’t thinking about that.”
Minerva gestured toward a table sitting against the wall near the bathroom doors. “You can put the book there if you like and grab it when you’re done. And you’ve washed your hands.”
The girl obediently placed the book on the table and hurried into the bathroom to end the conversation. Minerva returned to the customer at the sales counter waiting to buy a picture counting book and a plush toy.
Later in the afternoon, when a new shift of customers had settled in the store, Minerva was still at the sales counter when a burst of book buyers lined up for purchases. She became so focused on credit cards and printing receipts that she lost track of the flow of people in and out of the bathrooms. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a bearded man with salt and pepper hair strolling from the bathroom holding an illustrated book about birds. Minerva stopped what she was doing and hurried to confront the man as discretely as possible.
“Excuse me. Did you already buy that book?”
“I’m just looking. I haven’t decided yet. But everyone I know seems to be into birding lately.”
“Yes, I’m hearing a lot about birds, too,” Minerva said in almost a whisper. “And I’m afraid you’re going to have to buy that book.”
“But there might be one I like better.”
“No, you need to buy that one. Didn’t you see the sign on the door?” Minerva gestured to the sign that read “No Books Inside” and another which read, “You must buy any books taken into the bathroom.”
“Oh, I didn’t notice,” the bearded man said with some degree of embarrassment.
“You understand, of course, that a book taken into the bathroom is kind of tainted. I call it the Porcelain Touch. If it’s your book, you can take it wherever you want and do anything to it. But I can’t have that one going back on the shelves anymore.”
The man looked down at the book and said with a reluctant voice, “Then I guess I’ve found my book on birds.” He plodded to the end of the customer line so he could make his purchase.
After the rush of customers melted away and the store seemed to clear out, Minerva needed a bathroom break of her own. She motioned to Samantha who was minding the café and asked her to keep an eye on the sales counter. As Minerva headed into the bathroom, the phone in her pocket vibrated with an incoming text message. She grabbed the phone and read the message. Then she replied to it from inside a bathroom stall before taking the opportunity to scroll through other messages. Eventually, she placed the phone on the back of the toilet before flushing. Then she put the phone back in her pocket, left the stall, washed her hands, and returned to the sales counter carrying the Porcelain Touch with her.
A few minutes later, more texts arrived and Minerva quickly pulled out her phone to read them. As she rang up the next customer who arrived at the sales counter, the Porcelain Touch freely spread to everything Minerva handled.
“Intriguing selections,” Minerva said as she looked over the stack of books in front of her.
“Yeah, I’m into a bunch of different genres right now,” a young woman wearing a purple sweater replied.
“You’ve got everything from zombies to true crime here,” Minerva said in a friendly and sincerely interested voice. She and the customer chatted for the next five minutes about their favorite authors as Minerva touched every title in the stack.
Not long after the girl in the purple sweater left, Minerva watched another reader walk toward the bathroom while absorbed in a book. She stopped him and the college-aged customer wearing a Quidditch Cup shirt sheepishly apologized.
“I’m sorry. I forgot. I’ve heard all about the Porcelain Touch. I’ll just leave this right here.” He put the book he was carrying on the table outside the bathroom doors.
Almost instinctively, the young man pulled his phone from his pocket after putting the book down. He took a step toward the bathroom and then stopped himself. Turning toward Minerva he said, “Do you have a place where I can leave this? I’ve got a habit of checking it and I don’t want it to get, you know, the Porcelain Touch.”
A look of horrific realization dawned on Minerva’s face. Her mind raced so quickly, she failed to reply.
“Will you watch it if I leave it here?” asked the young man as he set his phone next to the book on the table.
Minerva reached for a bottle of hand sanitizer as she said, “Sure, I’ll watch it. Leave it right there.”
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