The Candy Shop

The little girl peeked against the thin glass panes, her babyish hands sludging across the arrays of brown and pink chocolates.

"Hello", I said, "What would you like?"

 "Whach thiz?"

The little girl asked, with a light tilt of her head, the front row of wobbling white teeth empty.

I crouched towards her low form, "The one in green? That's peppermint. P-E-P-P-E-R-M-I-N-T."

The little girl had bouncy black hair twirled and plaited in tiny braids that ran until her tiny shoulders. I held in a smile as she bobbed her head and pressed her nose against the frosty glass and ran along the aisles brimming with the heavy scent of cocoa and sugar.

As I busied myself with the counter and the ticking oven, I didn't notice when the little girl left the store.

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It was a lazy Wednesday, with light drizzling and faint breezes, when I saw her again. Her long black hair was cropped short, sharp edges bristling around her shoulder, as if someone had sheared it off with a knife. 

"Hello again. Do you want to buy something?" I asked, as I took out the cookies and left it out to cool. She looked down towards her feet, "I dunno how to buy."

I bent forward to ruffle her bushy hair, somehow she had become even cuter than before. The kid flinched and edged back, hiccuping, looked up at me with wide oval eyes that searched my face for harm. I kept a steady smile on my face, "Why's your hair short?" I asked. "Daddy cut it." she mumbled; I strained my ears to gloss over her whispered rambling. "He didn't like it."

My smile grew strained as I wondered what kind of father he was. No, I told myself, Don't jump to conclusions. "What else does your daddy do?"

The girl bristled, as she drew in further. "Do you want a cookie?" a plastered a huge grin for her to look, my mind whirled its invisible chains of thinking.

Was she abused? Did her father do something? 

"Mama ran away. Faaar away." she hiccuped again, and I wondered if I should call the police. Or Child Services?

"Did he hit you?" I said, offering a cookie. The girl snatched it away with a fast snipe and fastened it between her teeth, slowly nibbling the crumbs off. 

"Nu-uh. He goes in the morning and opens the door at night!" her mouth was full like a pufferfish or a chipmunk filled to the brim with nuts.

I didn't think the authorities would do anything. No one would do anything. And this little girl would grow up, thinking it okay to be locked, starved and hit. Thinking it normal to be ignored, locked and shunned.

And there was no one to do anything about it.

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