The
candy in the dime store looked so inviting. It was piled in neat heaps on the
candy counter. There were chocolate drops with a dark brown color, looking good
enough to melt in your mouth. Droozy could feel her mouth water. There were red
and white mints in cartwheel shapes, little flat chocolates sprinkled with white
sugar dots, and yellow lemon wedges, soft and chewy. In a corner there was a
sizable mountain of peanut candy, all wrapped in white transparent paper
enabling one to see the creamy caramel-like peanut kisses underneath. Droozy
stood there for a while almost able to taste the pointy sweetness of these
delicacies, as it would pass over her lips melting deliciously on her tongue.
Eight cents per pound, read the large hand-made sign. Automatically Droozy
reached into the half torn pocket of her cotton dress and withdrew her empty
hand. Droozy looked all around and noticed the salesgirl was at the other end of
the counter weighing large white bags of goodies for a very obese lady. Droozy
quickly placed both hands on the peanut kiss mountain and came away with them
full of the tempting sweets. “Stop thief, stop,” called out the saleslady in
a loud, clear, threatening voice. Droozy ran out of the store, as fast as she
could, colliding with people. Her feet flew across the brown wooden dime-store
floor, out the glass doors, down the grey streets, faster, faster, and still
faster. “Run thief run,” an inner voice shrieked. Around the corner, across
the street, between whizzing cars she dashed, still hearing the horrible voice
of her pursuer following her everywhere. For miles and miles, so it seemed, she
ran, panting and quaking to run from the crime. Droozy’s heart pounded harder
and harder in her chest, her breath came in short spurts. She did not stop until
she was inside the door of her parents’ home, where she quickly turned the key
to lock herself in. “They can’t get me now,” she thought. She looked at
her hands and they were empty. She had lost all of the candy along the way. |
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