“N-no thank you,” I stammer and turn away. When I was a kid I used to wish for a day when I could eat and do what I wanted. I’ve always had a sweet tooth and would sneak candy all day long when I worked in the taffy store but this…this is next level. I’ve never even seen half of these candies before. A woman at the center of the store spins pastel-colored ropes around herhead. They must be edible from the way the kids in front of her watch with wide eyes.
“Meadow!”
I turn in time to see Jaak dodging a pair of workers with caramel apples in their hands. “Jaak! Hey, get away from him!” I order when one of the workers tries to get Jaak to take a bite of the apple in her hand. Why does he look scared?
“It’s caramel. Everyone loves caramel. Won’t you have a bite? It’s on the house?” She brings the caramel apple closer and Jaak shakes his head.
Jaak watches the woman with wide eyes and shakes his head. “I’m not fond of sweets. No, thank you.” He holds up his hands to fend her off like she’s got a loaded gun but that doesn’t stop the workers. They keep advancing until he’s pinned up against a bubble gum by the foot display.
“Just one little bite won’t hurt,” she cajoles him while the other worker pulls out a candied bright red apple.
“What about this?” he asks. “Something a bit more classic. Just one…little bite…doesn’t it look good?” The man wiggles the candy apple at Jaak who just turns his face away and presses closer to the candy display behind him.
“He said, no! He doesn’t want your stupid apples!” I shove past them. “So why don’t you take your apples and beat it before I use this on you.” I reach back and grab a length of bubble gum. It spins right off the dispenser and into my hand. “I mean it. Back up or you're going to be in bubblegum hell.”
The woman gives me a frown and crosses her arms. “So what are you, like his bodyguard or something?”
I snap the bubble gum tape in my hands and take a step towards her. “Worse. I’m his wife.” I start to swing the bubble gum tape over my head, fully intending to lob her on the side of the head but I never get the chance.
The woman’s eyes round and she grabs her partner in crime. “Come on, Rob. Looks like he’s taken.” Rob barely gets his mouth open before she yanks him into the sugar-hungry crowd and Jaak and I are alone.
I drop the bubble gum tape and look at him. “Are you okay?”
Jaak looks like he’s seen a ghost but he nods. “Yes, yes, you saved me.” He turns to me and grabs my hands. “You are brave. Far braver than me.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.”
“You fended off those vile peddlers of poison. You saved me from a fate worse than death.”
I slow-blink and try to process Jaak’s look of awe. “You were locked up by the Fates at the gate of hell and you think the candy apples are a fate worse than death?”
“They are. Those,” he lowers his voice to a whisper,“apples.”
“Candied and caramel apples,” I remind him.
Jaak shudders and nods. “Yes, the worst of the worst.” He looks over his shoulder where the candy shoppe workers are forcing a candy apple down a teenager’s throat. “My kind are vulnerable to apples. One bite is all it takes for one of us to fall into a deep sleep. Even being this close to them is almost too much for me.”
“Wait, so you’re like…allergic to apples?”
“What does that mean?”
“Um, it’s like you get really sick and sometimes you can die,” I tell him. I’d gone to school with a girl that was allergic to peanuts. I still remember the day she ate a cookie with peanut butter in it when we were young. Definitely a scarring time for young Meadow. “It’s really bad. Seriously bad.”
“Then yes, I am allergic to apples.” Jaak looks pained to even say the fruit’s name. He swallows hard and points a finger at the candy apple peddlers. “Mark my words, there is somethingnefarious afoot with those apples. They seek to make the humans sick.”
“You know, normally I’d say it’s just a sweet treat but there is something off about those two.” I cross my arms and watch the duo. They’re relentless with the way they’re getting candy and caramel apples in kids' hands. They even manage to stuff a caramel apple into an unsuspecting father’s mouth before he’s able to stagger away. Why did they want Jaak to eat the apple so bad?
“Let’s stay away from those two,” I tell Jaak and loop my arm through his. “Stay close to me. I might not have the bubble tape with me next time.”
We make our way through the candy shoppe crowd and to the front of the store without another incident. I’m hyperaware of the psycho apple twins following us, though. I watch them from the corner of my eye and see they’re always just a few steps behind. I whirl around once and grab what looks like a candy sword off of a display and hold it out in their direction to send them back into the crowd.
What the heck is going on? They’re definitely following us.
“Hello! Can I help you two weary travelers?” A man asks seemingly from nowhere and I scream and drop my sword on the ground where it smashes into a million little bits.
“We are curious if your business owner is in today?” Jaak says, not missing a beat while the sales person at the counter in front of us glares at me while I try to pick up the candy pieces. It’s no use. They’re practically dust.
I hold up a handful of candy dust. “I can buy this. I promise.”
