Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
“Whatever is happening in this town, she’s not in on it. That means not all the business owners are cult baddies, just some of them.”
Jaak stretches and looks around at the busy street. “I prefer it when they’re all baddies. It makes battle much simpler. We will have to be discerning.”
“Yes, very discerning. We can’t end up hurting someone innocent.
” I cross my arms and look at the next few businesses near us.
There’s a bookstore, a candy shoppe, a spa and further down a flower shop.
“I know I said we needed to go to the Chamber of Commerce but I’m getting scary cult epicenter vibes from it now after Dina warned us to stay out of the social club.
Maybe we go back to the plan we had of visiting the businesses one by one.
It’ll give us more time to avoid the doomsday cult until we’re ready to take them on. ”
“One on one they won’t be able to stand against us and I’d prefer for you to grow accustomed to your new abilities. You may be invulnerable but a first drift will be jarring.”
When Jaak says drift my mind automatically goes to the way things felt when we teleported. Does he mean like that?
“Would you look at that! It’s a candy shoppe, a real life one! Come on, let’s get samples!” A pack of tourists descends on us and I forget all about how terrifying teleporting or what a drift is when they sweep us towards the candy shoppe and away from one another.
I push against a couple of teens but get nowhere. “Jaak!”
“Here. I’m here!” I turn to see his hand stretched high above a father and son duo who are doing their best impression of a wall. I try to dart forward to grab Jaak’s hand but it’s no dice.
“Hurry along, dear or we’ll miss the samples!” An elderly woman at my elbow jabs me in the side and I’m forced to march along with her.
“I’m not with your group,” I tell her but it doesn't matter when there’s candy samples to be had. The old woman shushes me and hip checks me through the door of the candy shoppe.
I stumble forward and only manage to catch myself when I hit a bin of toffee. The scent of sugar and spice rises around me and I take a second to look around. It’s like every wild dream I ever had as a child has come to technicolor life.
“It looks like a rainbow threw up in here,” I whisper.
“Are those toffees?” The old woman that forced me in here comes right for me and I dive to the side with a yelp.
A man with a massive lollipop waves it at me. “How about a lolli for the road? It’s cherry flavored.”
“N-no thank you,” I stammer and turn away.
When I was a kid I used to wish for a day when I could eat and do what I wanted.
I’ve always had a sweet tooth and would sneak candy all day long when I worked in the taffy store but this…
this is next level. I’ve never even seen half of these candies before.
A woman at the center of the store spins pastel-colored ropes around her head.
They must be edible from the way the kids in front of her watch with wide eyes.
“Meadow!”
I turn in time to see Jaak dodging a pair of workers with caramel apples in their hands. “Jaak! Hey, get away from him!” I order when one of the workers tries to get Jaak to take a bite of the apple in her hand. Why does he look scared?
“It’s caramel. Everyone loves caramel. Won’t you have a bite? It’s on the house?” She brings the caramel apple closer and Jaak shakes his head.
Jaak watches the woman with wide eyes and shakes his head. “I’m not fond of sweets. No, thank you.” He holds up his hands to fend her off like she’s got a loaded gun but that doesn’t stop the workers. They keep advancing until he’s pinned up against a bubble gum by the foot display.
“Just one little bite won’t hurt,” she cajoles him while the other worker pulls out a candied bright red apple.
“What about this?” he asks. “Something a bit more classic. Just one…little bite…doesn’t it look good?” The man wiggles the candy apple at Jaak who just turns his face away and presses closer to the candy display behind him.
“He said, no! He doesn’t want your stupid apples!
” I shove past them. “So why don’t you take your apples and beat it before I use this on you.
” I reach back and grab a length of bubble gum.
It spins right off the dispenser and into my hand.
“I mean it. Back up or you're going to be in bubblegum hell.”
The woman gives me a frown and crosses her arms. “So what are you, like his bodyguard or something?”
I snap the bubble gum tape in my hands and take a step towards her. “Worse. I’m his wife.” I start to swing the bubble gum tape over my head, fully intending to lob her on the side of the head but I never get the chance.
The woman’s eyes round and she grabs her partner in crime. “Come on, Rob. Looks like he’s taken.” Rob barely gets his mouth open before she yanks him into the sugar-hungry crowd and Jaak and I are alone.
I drop the bubble gum tape and look at him. “Are you okay?”
Jaak looks like he’s seen a ghost but he nods. “Yes, yes, you saved me.” He turns to me and grabs my hands. “You are brave. Far braver than me.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.”
“You fended off those vile peddlers of poison. You saved me from a fate worse than death.”
I slow-blink and try to process Jaak’s look of awe. “You were locked up by the Fates at the gate of hell and you think the candy apples are a fate worse than death?”
“They are. Those,” he lowers his voice to a whisper, “apples.”
“Candied and caramel apples,” I remind him.
Jaak shudders and nods. “Yes, the worst of the worst.” He looks over his shoulder where the candy shoppe workers are forcing a candy apple down a teenager’s throat.
“My kind are vulnerable to apples. One bite is all it takes for one of us to fall into a deep sleep. Even being this close to them is almost too much for me.”
“Wait, so you’re like…allergic to apples?”
“What does that mean?”
“Um, it’s like you get really sick and sometimes you can die,” I tell him.
I’d gone to school with a girl that was allergic to peanuts.
I still remember the day she ate a cookie with peanut butter in it when we were young.
Definitely a scarring time for young Meadow. “It’s really bad. Seriously bad.”
“Then yes, I am allergic to apples.” Jaak looks pained to even say the fruit’s name. He swallows hard and points a finger at the candy apple peddlers. “Mark my words, there is something nefarious afoot with those apples. They seek to make the humans sick.”
“You know, normally I’d say it’s just a sweet treat but there is something off about those two.
” I cross my arms and watch the duo. They’re relentless with the way they’re getting candy and caramel apples in kids' hands. They even manage to stuff a caramel apple into an unsuspecting father’s mouth before he’s able to stagger away.
Why did they want Jaak to eat the apple so bad?
“Let’s stay away from those two,” I tell Jaak and loop my arm through his. “Stay close to me. I might not have the bubble tape with me next time.”
We make our way through the candy shoppe crowd and to the front of the store without another incident.
I’m hyperaware of the psycho apple twins following us, though.
I watch them from the corner of my eye and see they’re always just a few steps behind.
I whirl around once and grab what looks like a candy sword off of a display and hold it out in their direction to send them back into the crowd.
What the heck is going on? They’re definitely following us.
“Hello! Can I help you two weary travelers?” A man asks seemingly from nowhere and I scream and drop my sword on the ground where it smashes into a million little bits.
“We are curious if your business owner is in today?” Jaak says, not missing a beat while the sales person at the counter in front of us glares at me while I try to pick up the candy pieces. It’s no use. They’re practically dust.
I hold up a handful of candy dust. “I can buy this. I promise.”
The man sniffs. “See that you do. We do not accept out of town checks.”
Jaak sighs and takes out a few bills for the man. “Here, this should be more than enough to cover the damages.”
The sales person’s eyes bug out of his head as he takes the bills and bobs his head. “Yes, yes, more than enough, sir. We can have someone clean that right up too, ma’am.” He snaps his fingers at an associate and they come running with a broom and dust pan.
“Thank the gods,” I whisper and stand up beside Jaak. “Sorry again about the sword.”
“No worries, it’s all in a day’s work here at the Candy Shoppe!
Now, what can I interest you two in? You’ve already qualified for our Sweet Spender Pack,” he says, pulling out a basket of assorted candy.
I spy another candy sword in the mix as well a few lollipops, candy bunnies and what looks like a five pound bag of gummy worms.
“There’s no apples in there, right?” I ask as I lean forward to look in the basket.
“Ah, umm,” the man stammers and pulls at his collar nervously, “No, no, of course not! We wouldn’t dream of putting any apples in our Sweet Spender Pack. I assure you, this pack is completely safe.”
Jaak gives me a ‘See, I told you apples were bullshit’ look and nods. “That is satisfactory. Now then, about your business owner. Are they available for questioning?”
The salesman gives us a confused look. “What? What kind of questioning?”
I step in front of Jaak with my best smile that I know will get my way. I was trained to smile through every kind of discomfort and disappointment in life, and that means this smile is a million dollar trust me smile.
“He means, questions for our, um, newspaper feature. We’re writers, you see and new to town. We’re hoping to pitch a few ideas to the local newspaper to get on staff.”
“And you think a feature on business owners is going to be enough to get you on at the Bitter Root Reader?”
I lean forward and put my hands down on the counter. “I don’t think, I know. This feature is going to be hot. Real modern and cutting edge. We could even do a piece on you.”
“I’m Leo. I manage the Candy Shoppe for Brian, our owner.
Which practically makes me a business owner too,” he says, puffing up at the mention of being included in our feature.
“Well, your sense of a story isn’t wrong, I’ll give you two that.
I do like the way you spend money when it comes to quality candy.
That’s taste you can’t teach, right there. ”
“We know quality when we see it,” I lie.
Leo leans forward like he’s going to tell me a secret and so do I. “There’s a lot going on here with the businesses. Enough to write about for years. This would be the story of a lifetime.”
“Interesting. You think we could get a quote from your owner about these events?” I ask.
I don’t know where this side of me is coming from.
I must still be riding the high of fending off the apple peddlers, or something.
Whatever it is, I feel sure and steady. There’s nothing I can’t do.
I’m electric. I could convince this man the moon is falling, I know I could.
“He’s not back from his camping trip with the business owner's social club. They, um, they got delayed. Brian usually checks in with us but he hasn’t since last night.
” Leo pulls out his phone and frowns. “That’s very unlike him.
I hope someone fed his guinea pigs, Lucy and Ethel.
I should swing by and check on them after my shift. ”
Oh my gods, we blew up a pet owner.
I look away because I can’t bear to look at Leo and know that we orphaned those pigs. Jaak doesn’t look the least bit phased about the thought of ownerless guinea pigs.
I clear my throat and give him another bright smile. “Oh, ah, that’s too bad. Maybe we can interview the owner when they return? And is that social club something we could interview? That’d be a real nice inclusion.”
Leo shakes his head. “I’m afraid not. They’re very picky. They never give interviews or anything like that, but you can try. There’s a few owners that didn’t go on the trip. They might have an in for you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I can give you a few names if you want to write them down.”
“Would you have a piece of paper, I don’t have anything to write with and-”
“Of course you do, dear.” Jaak hands me a small official looking notepad and a pen. “I was holding these for you, remember?”
I shoot him a grateful smile. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Jaak winks at me and like a school girl, I blush.
“The pleasure is all mine,” he tells me, and for a second the entire candy shoppe vanishes.
There’s no psychotic apple pushers or the chaotic sugar hungry crowd, not even Leo exists.
It’s just us. I reach up and cup his cheek and Jaak turns his face into my touch.
He kisses my thumb and my insides turn to warm jelly.
There’s nothing sweeter than my husband in this entire candy shoppe. Not by a long shot.
“Are you two newlyweds?” Leo asks, flicking a twisted licorice rope at us and popping our bubble.
I laugh. “Actually, yes.”