Chapter Two

There was the Butcher, chopping up what appeared to be the leg of poor unfortunate Mrs. Penny who lived across town. Her cheap worn brown shoe exposing her big toe indicated her untimely misfortune. The Butcher stood up and straightened his back, the clothes he wore stuck to him with the gruesome remains of Mrs. Penny who had lived across town. The Candle Shop Girl felt faint and reached out her hand to steady herself. Only instead, her hand landed on a tin trash can lid, causing it to go tumbling onto the road making a loud stir as she lost her balance and fell. The Butcher, startled from what he was doing, jumped and began to creep slowly towards where she cowered, with his hands outstretched. The Candle Shop Girl’s heart beat hard in the darkness as she contemplated her last possible moments. It occurred to her that she left the kitchen light on at home. When the Butcher rounded the brick building to see her trembling frame, the violence in his face melted to horror and then to sympathy as he realized she was terrified instead of charmed as she had been earlier in the day. In that moment, he longed to see her smile and eagerness and not this shrinking violet before him. In hopes of correcting the wronged situation, he reached out his hand and spoke gently to her as if romancing a dubious and tired cat from being stuck in a tree. The Candle Shop Girl didn’t know what to think of the situation before her and so she took his offered hand and held tightly to him as he led her away from poor Mrs. Penny who no longer would be living across town with her worn brown boots exposing her large big toe.

The Butcher ushered her into his shop across the street and then scurried back into the darkness of the alley. The Candle Shop Girl decided to spare herself the sight of the horrible crime by sitting on one of the many bar stools in the far corner of the room near the deli stand. After a few hours of sitting alone in the dark, the smell of fresh brewed coffee tickled her delicate senses and she watched as The Butcher placed two cups brimmed with the dark water before them. The Candle Shop Girl was afraid to look at him in case he had changed somehow. Forcing her eyes up, she saw that he looked as he always had and the gruesome exchange was nowhere to be seen. Breathing a sigh of relief, her hopes of it all being just a bad dream were dashed when he said what he said next.

“I am very sorry you had to see that. Mrs. Penny was already dead when I found her and I was really just trying to help my future Father in Law.” The look on The Candle Shop Girl’s face was one of sheer horror. The color of her porcelain face drained entirely and her red lips began to tremble. The Butcher, saddened that his attempt to smooth over the situation was instead backfiring, spoke quickly. “There wasn’t anything I could do to help her. Really, there wasn’t.” Knowing that these words were not enough he took her small hands in his own and sat quietly with her until the sun rose.