Chéri liked stories, more than most things and more than they usually confessed. So they listened with great attention at Christine description… only to be kind of disappointed by the conclusion. “Books?” They asked, incredulous. They nodded, but it sounded just absurd.

Then another thought occurred to them. They placed solidly their chin on the boxes and asked, in doubt “Does one… need to wait for them to die? There is no other option?” he glanced at her in doubt, biting his lower lip, looking exquisitely young.

Christine gave a light giggle as she walked. "Oh my yes, some people get quite eager to own a book if its words contain some special knowledge." She liked having the young man at her side as she walked and he seemed curious about her story. His other question had her look towards him curiously and she had to look around to make sure no one was close enough to be listening in.

Her head tilted in his direction just a little and her smile grew mischievous. "Well the thing is, you could steal it but that is more difficult to keep. But death comes to us all, and sometimes it is possible to hurry it alone." She stood straighter as she walked, "But of course, I have never done such a thing."

Chéri batted his long lashes and stared with a good amount of curiosity “What kind of special knowledge can a book contain?” Probably imagining something magical or religious. The use of books was as foreign to him as archery or tea ceremony. She appeared very prudent and this made Chéri stiffen his back, as if he had just become aware of just how dangerous it could be for them.
He eyed the street around them, in search of anyone staring and/or pretending to to be.

A shiver went down his spine as she said those words, than Chéri found himself staring and laughed at the end “Of course not! You speak like a witch from a fairy tale”. No filter. “I just meant to say if death is the only way to free oneself. If… if one does not get on with, say, a father.” Or a brother.

Christine walked and kept her voice lowered but with a whimsical tone. "Ah.. they could contain stories too obscene for modern man. Or information on things in the past , like words from men silenced or the losing side of a war. There are plenty of reasons for a book to be hidden away. They can contain the words lost to time and the men who spoke them long dead." She thought it was interesting even if few others did

She laughed lightly, "oh thank you. I usually like the witches in stories , they are far more intriguing than the protagonists. ' Christine was walking more casually until he spoke. She shrugged. "Run away and get somebody to take care if you won't be left alone. Or just run away. That is always an option and something to consider if you're afraid."

“Too obscene for modern man?” Chéri thought modern man fairly proficient at coming up with obscenities, so he was fairly curious to hear what that might possibly mean. Chéri shrugged, apparently not among those few“And why would that be important?” He asked, letting his thoughts go from his brain to his mouth without even considering filtering. The concept of book = interesting information was still not properly clear.

Chéri laughed, so hard he risked losing the boxes. Then he became silent and fixed his gaze upon the street. It was exactly what he had done. Was he managing though? He wasn’t sure. But he also wasn’t starving, which admittedly it was something. Also, Whitby turned out to have way more French speakers than expected, which was indeed something.

Christine nodded, "Oh yes. Modern man likes to keep things clean in print and in public. Some books ignore this rule." She smiled as she walked but kept her voice low and made sure no one was too close when she spoke. At the question of importance, she rose her brow and looked over. "Oh it's very important. There are books about all sorts of things people want to keep secret. Books that speak of things against the laws or give voices to enemies. Forgotten knowledge. What if someone once wrote a book that said there was gold buried under your home, and a rich person had that book and simply just kept it hidden because they had enough money now but if they wanted gold they'd know where to get it. You'd wish you knew of this book, wouldn't you? It's sort of like that." She said, trying to simplify it and make an example that perhaps would get the point across.

Christine smiled at the laughter. "You seem happy, that's good. It is important we are happy for ourselves because the world doesn't care to give us happiness, we must take it or make it."

Chéri squinted a little, trying to understand what the lady meant when she spoke about “clean”. It was getting more confusing by the minute, which was making the lady, in proportion, more and more interesting. “I would.” Chéri admitted “Are there lots of books that say where the gold is?” Was the obvious, fowling question now that the main point about the value of the content of books had come across. “Do you have some?” Hey, HE was intrested in gold, if the lady could get him some.

Chéri batted the long lashes, with a curious smile. “Well, let’s say that looking happy gets your more often what you want” and his smile turned to the sly side, just for a moment, before snapping back. It was so quick it didn’t even look real.

Christine smiled at the curious young man. "That is the point. If there was a book about gold, someone has probably got it so no one else can find the gold." She wasn't about to correct him since he'd gotten intrigued about the topic. When he bluntly asked her if she had gold, her eyebrows raised and she smiled more. "Do I? Of course not. But I might have money. I won't tel." She ran a bookstore in this little hole, of course she did since she wasn't scraping by to not starve. But she'd never tell some random man on the street.

Her face turned towards him and she smirked. "It does. So you can't fail when you're happy."

When she said “I won’t tell” Chéri looked at her, up and down and, without hesitation, they concluded “You absolutely do have the money.” Chéri might not have known much about books, but they knew how to tell when someone abide to a collection of rules so complex and well thought out most people couldn’t even fathom. And, according to the same logic, no one who had to earn daily what they needed to survive could possibly have had the time to think so deeply about… well, anything, really. Deep-thinking was a marker of class and complex morals were deep thinking. In this line of thought themselves and their possibility to develop such an opinion were not contemplated.

Chéri shook their head “Meh. Let’s say it is harder to starve when people wish they were you, for whatever reason.” Or with you, which probably helped even more.

Christine stopped walking and rose her brow. She laughed and tossed back her hair before walking again. "I could just be treated rich by someone wealthy. Or I could have come from a wealthy educated background and lost it all. You can't assume, you know." Of course she had money, and she didn't care to hide it though she also didn't cover herself in expensive things as she wanted it to last all her life.

She looked at him. "Is that so? Tell me more. I've never had anyone give me anything. I was just born lucky."