10 Cents

Mum never fancied candies like this. She always said that it’d rot me from the inside out. 

Well, mum isn’t here, now is she? 

The thought seeps into me like fog rolling over the hill. Clouded by desire, I reach for the rainbow ribbon hard candy. The wrapper glimmers in my hand as if I caught a star. My fist encloses the treat, the crunch of rainbow cellophane fills the silence.

Don’t just sit there ninny. The storekeeper is staring you down. Clearly you present as theft, go buy the forsaken candy already. How’s she gonna know?

I look up at the shopman and back down to my hand. A crossfire if I’d ever been in one.