James came down the stairs from his apartment to the shop below slowly, carrying a stack of books that needed to go back on the shelves.  One of the perks of owning a bookstore was not having to actually 'buy' anything he wanted to read; he'd just pull whatever caught his eye from the shelf and then replace it once he was finished.  He almost tripped three steps from the bottom when Creeper, the shop's cat, darted between his legs with snorted 'mrrow'.  "God-damned animal," James half-shouted, thankful that the store wasn't open yet.  In response the cat disappeared into the darkened aisles, his tail swishing erratically.<br/><br/>Once he'd returned the books to their rightful places and selected a new one to read (Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds), James put on a fresh pot of coffee.  He didn't offer any of the fancier blends like some bookstores did; what went in the pot was typically whatever was on sale at the store when he went to stock up.  That done, he continued the morning ritual of opening: lights on, radio on, Creeper's litter box in the back room cleaned out and his food and water bowls refilled, door unlocked, sign turned around to display 'open'.<br/><br/>With everything ready and in place James sat behind the front counter and leaned back, picking up the book he'd selected and opening it to the introduction.<em> Life</em>, he mused,<em>ain't so bad with a job like this...</em>