Flash Prompt Feb 25,2011

[grainnerhuad]

It was hard to tell what it had been, before...

[neonorth]

Sharma and Tamika were best friends, had been since grade two – a lifetime it would seem from their respective nine year old perspective. The two had been almost inseparable since that first day, dressing the same, getting the same hair styles, same jewellery, and even taking on the other’s own unique personality quirks. Today, as a treat for such a hard day of track and field, Sharma and Tamika decided that they would pool the remains of their allowance together – a whole dollar eight five, and buy a “Big Turk” from Shoemaker’s Candy Emporium, which was located on their way home. Ensuring that their pigtails were pulled back straight in their bright pink bows (which was the same shade of their backpacks and matching sundresses), they walked purposefully into the candy store and directly to the chocolate bar aisle, getting the large “2 4 1” chocolate bar and headed up to the counter. They put the chocolate bar in front of the lanky grey haired store owner and then dug the change from their respective small side pouches on the sides of their backpacks and began to count the array of change that thunked onto the counter.
Mr. Shoemaker watched as the two young girls countered out their nickels, dimes and pennies on the glass counter with a smile on his face; he thought it was funny how life took its U-turns. Thirty years ago he had watched kids count out their nickels, dimes, pennies and quarters too – but just off in the back alley about a block down. He sold a different kind of candy back then, but becoming a family man, and a beating that had almost ended his life, had made him decide that he should have a different career to support his young family with. His heart almost sank when the girls finished counting out the money only to be five cents short on their purchase. He thought about just letting the two have the candy, but steeled himself against that urge; a part of learning about being a consumer is knowing what you can afford and what you can’t. With sadness in his voice, he informed the girls of the shortfall.
The girls, crestfallen pleaded with the candy store owner just to let them have the candy. Mr. Shoemaker politely refused, explaining that sometimes in life you have to be denied something in order to learn about responsible choices. The girls were not interested in learning any life lessons, however, and haughtily stomped out of the candy store, their pink backpacks bouncing defiantly towards Mr. Shoemaker. Mr. Shoemaker sighed and turned to grab a few bars of chocolate from one of the boxes stacked behind him at the counter.
As the candy store’s door was closing, Tamika shot a dirty look towards the slowly sidling back of Mr. Shoemaker.
“Cock sucker,” she mumbled out of the corner of her scowl.
“Tamika!” Sharma whispered sharply as she looked around to see if any of the passing grownups had heard her friend’s remark. They sat down hard on the edge of the sidewalk, both putting their chins into the palms of their hands in full sulk.
“This sucks,” Tamika stated bitterly.
“Yeah,” Sharma said as she nodded. The two were silent for five minutes before Sharma’s eyes widened and a smile crossed her face. She took her chin from her palms and looked at Tamika.
Tamika, irritated at her friend’s sudden sunny demeanour, deepened her scowl.
“I have an idea,” Sharma announced, standing up and grabbing her friend’s elbow to pull her up, “Come on!”
With Tamika grumbling the entire way, the two made the four block run to Sharma’s house. They quickly said hello to Sharma’s mother who was making dinner in the kitchen before heading upstairs of the two story house to the bedrooms, one bedroom in particular; Sharma’s older brother’s room. Ordinarily Sharma would knock and ask permission to enter but she knew Robert was still at basketball practice so no penalty would be extracted for her boldness now. Tamika felt nervous about entering the bedroom – she had a slight crush on her friend’s brother, and the dreams had been quite vivid since their sex education class on what she’d imagine the two of them could do together but her curiosity over her friend’s giddiness overpowered her fear of entering the shrine of her idol. Sharma headed directly for Robert’s dresser drawer, opening up to reveal to Tamika’s surprise, and a mysterious rise in body temperature, underwear. Tamika eyes widened as Sharma pushed back the underwear to reveal a CZ combat 9mm semi automatic pistol.
“Rob calls it his ‘evener’,” Sharma informed Tamika, “Think Mr. Shoemaker would let us be even?” Tamika nodded heartily. Sharma gave a smile and with a grunt put the heavy gun into the front pouch of her backpack. The two girls set back out to Shoemaker’s candy store, Sharma yelling to her mom she’d be back in time for dinner.
Just as they had done an hour before, they picked out the exact candy they wanted and brought it up to the smiling candy store proprietor’s counter. They dutifully pulled out their change, and as before began counting it out for the man.
“I’m afraid you’re still five cents short,” the candy store owner gently informed the two girls.
“How about you forget about the five cents and let us have it,” Tamika said authoritatively, nodding to Sharma. The other girl put her back pack down beside her, opened it up and pulled the gun from inside. Sharma wobbly put the gun down on the counter sideways, laying her hand atop of the black grip frame and trigger.
Mr. Shoemaker’s eyes widened, he forced himself to take a breath to steady his hands that had developed a sudden shake; he always knew that there would be the chance that he would face a robbery, but from two little girls in pigtails and pink dresses?
“Now girls,” he said his voice as unsteady as his hands that rested on the edge of the candy store’s glass counter, “You don’t want to do anything that could...”
Tamika cut the man off.
“Then you better let us have our damn candy,” she said curtly, her lower lip billowing outward in righteous indignation.
“Of course, of course,” Mr. Shoemaker said obligingly, pushing the pile of candy towards the two. “Why don’t I take the gun as payment?” He moved his hand from the pile of candy towards the pistol.
“Are you crazy? My brother would kill me!” Sharma screeched, hurriedly pulling the heavy weapon towards her edge of the counter just as the candy store proprietor’s finger tips touched its barrel.
“Now girls, this is far too dangerous sort of thing for you to be playing around with,” Mr. Shoemaker said, his voice slightly higher as he tried to maintain an air of calm. He moved his hand further to grip the barrel of the pistol to move it towards him. Sharma grabbed the butt of the pistol firmly, but could not pull it away any farther; the candy man’s grip was stronger than hers.
Tamika saw the struggle in her friend’s eyes; she put her hands on the pistol, her finger slipping through the trigger hole. Mr. Shoemaker tugged, his nerves giving him a little more force than he had intended. Tamika’s finger jammed against the trigger release just as Sharma had raised the grip up so that the barrel was at a 45 degree angle to the counter in an effort to loosen the man’s grip. The pistol fired a single shot. The force of the blast sent the two girls backwards into the potato chip display directly behind them and sent Mr. Shoemaker backwards into the wall behind him and the counter as the pistol, released from all three grasps fell through the shattering glass counter and shelving to the ground.
In a chorus of groans, Tamika and Sharma picked themselves off their makeshift airbag of potato chips, groaning. Mr. Shoemaker did not move from the floor that used to behind the now weak frame of aluminum counter. The girls stared at the dead man, they had never seen a real dead body before – it didn’t look anything like they had seen on the “Showtime” movie of the week; for one thing it smelt much like the girl’s bathroom after one of the teachers had walked briskly into one of the stalls. They were amazed at how alive the candy man looked, with the exception of the blood spatter that covered his face like a Dalmatian. In fact, the girls would have sworn that Mr. Shoemaker was still alive if it hadn’t been for the lack of movement and that he hadn’t blinked once as they stared at him. Something was off though about his mouth, the two girls silently agreed. They stepped through the broken frame of the counter to get a closer look. Both girls peered narrowly at the object in Mr. Shoemaker’s mouth. With the thick phlegm and blood that slowly oozed around the object and the sides of the old man’s mouth, it was hard to tell what it had been, before. It wasn’t his tongue; it didn’t have the right shape and the colour was a little bit darker than what a tongue looked like.
“Give his head a kick,” Sharma instructed Tamika. Tamika dutifully followed her friend’s order. Mr. Shoemaker’s head rolled back for a moment before it came back to rest in the same position as before, but the force of Tamika’s kick was ample enough to dislodge the mystery object from the man’s mouth. It gave a spongy plop onto the ground beside candy man’s body. Both girls’s bent their knees to get a closer look.
“Is that?...” Sharma asked her companion as she wagged her finger just above the object.
Tamika, the braver of the two girls, bent down even lower on her haunches. She nodded.
“Yep, it’s...”
The bullet, as it left the barrel of the CZ 9mm, shot downward and broke some large chunks of the heavy glass that comprised the counter into serrated scythes that lodged deeply into Mr. Shoemaker’s body. One piece, however, a little slower than the others, dislodged from the metal shelving hinge just as the candy man was falling backwards from the bullet’s impact. The angle was such that it sliced through the man’s clothes and severed off any fleshy material in its path before lodging half way into Mr. Shoemaker’s pelvic bone. The flesh refugee from the man’s body, forced by the velocity of the glass in an upwards and opposite direction of said glass, would have eventually landed a foot or so behind the two girls – if it had not been for the sturdiness of the metal counter frame of which it bounced off of and then traveled back towards the falling man. Mr. Shoemaker was a very conscientious confectionary vendor; always over ordering supplies to the point where at times he would have boxes stacked behind his narrow four foot space behind the counter. Because of the richness of the product selection that had not yet made it out to the aisles of the store, Mr. Shoemaker’s body crumpling to the floor was slightly stilled for the briefest of moments as the friction of his clothes gave a hearty greeting to the boxes of candy behind him. The flesh that had been on a quest to find a resting spot on the floor out front then had been diverted had its course detoured by Mr. Shoemaker’s forehead. Mr. Shoemaker’s body landed on the floor face up, allowing the second behind lag of the fleshy piece usurped by the glass to claim refugee status within the hallowed sanctuary of Mr. Shoemaker’s mouth.
“...his wiener!!” Tamika exclaimed. Both girls shrieked in disgust, their tongues hanging out and proceeded to make gagging noises as they stood up and backed away from the body of Mr. Shoemaker. Both girls were silent for a moment. Tamika smiled triumphantly at Sharma.
“Told ya he was a cocksucker”...