Matchsticks and Candy Canes

by C. E. Wilson

She sloshed her sponge onto the floured board and started scrubbing in perfect circles to match his effort. “You um, you don’t have to be sorry. It’s not your fault I’m small,” Brynne murmured. The whole board was moving under her as he scrubbed at it, reminding her of the strength of humans. “A warning next time is all I ask. It’s not like you’d hurt me. You’re always careful. Gentle, even.” The last bit came tumbling out at the last second and she promptly blushed. Not like he needed to hear that!

  Carter almost dropped the sponge. “G-gentle?” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed that her cheek was flushed and pink. He swallowed hard and tried to focus on scrubbing again. “Uh, thanks,” he said slowly, flexing his fingers around the sponge a few times. “I’ll try to give a little warning from here on out.” He looked at his hand and thought about how he had warmed her earlier. “And for the record you’re not that small,” he muttered. “I mean you are! Heh, but you’re...” he trailed off with a shrug, “... but, I don’t think it’s anything you have to feel at fault for. You’re an elf and that’s just the size you are. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn’t.” He scowled at himself and started to scrub again. “Ignore me,” he said. “I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

  “No, it’s um, it’s nice. Thank you,” she murmured shyly in reply before glancing up at him as she worked. It was pleasant to work like this, warm and with a full stomach. And to have someone like Carter to work with and talk to. He seemed so kind and so wonderful. She could get used to this life, eating bread and chatting and cleaning…

  Carter’s voice rocked her from her daydreaming. “Brynne? Brynne?”

  “What? Oh!” Brynne jolted and tried to stand on the shaking table, but her foot slipped in flour and she staggered a few steps right into Carter’s wrist. His huge hand drew back, dropping his soapy sponge in surprise. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, are you okay?”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine, Brynne.” Carter stumbled over his words, surprised to hear the concern in her voice.

  “Here, let me check…” She reached, as if worried for him, yet at the same time her feet carried her away from him out of fear.

  “It’s not like you could have done anything, see?” He flexed his fingers a few times for effect. “No harm done.” He started to smile, but she was already on the other end of the table. “It’s okay.”

  “No, you’re right,” she admitted. “It’s not like I could have done anything at all. Sorry, I was distracted and I slipped.” She fell to her knees and started to scrub the table again.

  Carter looked at her with a puzzled expression, then came to a realization. He had said something stupid yet again. “I didn’t mean it like you couldn’t do anything,” he tried to say.

  “Of course not.”

  “Seriously,” Carter said. His frown grew deeper as she continued to focus on the table. “Please stop doing that and look at me for a moment.” Finally, he gently looped an entire hand around her arm and turned her carefully toward him. Finally she was looking at him– bruise and all. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said again. “I didn’t want you to worry about me. In case you forgot, you were the one left out overnight in the snow. So I don’t want you to make a worried face about me, okay?”

  Her grey eyes darted back and forth as she searched his face. Was it possible to kill someone with kindness? She nodded slowly. “Okay.”

  It suddenly dawned on Carter that he was touching her without permission and he quickly pulled his hand away with red ears. “And here I go grabbing you again,” he said with a nervous laugh. “Seriously, you don’t have to work so hard. Not that you’re not helping! I didn’t invite you here to help me clean.”

  Noting that the tips of his ears were blazing red and he kept gnawing on his lower lip, a thought occurred to Brynne. An impossible thought.

  “Carter?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Do I make you nervous?” she asked.

  “What?” Carter’s normally deep voice rose to a squeak.

  “I promise I won’t curse your house or anything by being here.”

  Carter scoffed, shaking his head. “I know. I never once thought that about you.”

  Brynne went back to scrubbing, not entirely sure she believed him. After all, what else could cause him to be as nervous as she was?

  Carter threw her a look out of the corner of his eye. It didn’t seem fair to lie. “Fine,” he relented. “I’ll admit you do make me a little nervous, I guess.”

  Her scrubbing slowed down again. “W-why?” she asked carefully. “If you think I’m a witch then I can go—”

  “It’s not that,” he muttered. “It’s not that. Not really.”

  “So, what is it?”

  “I guess.” He frowned and started to scrub at the board again, “I’ve been watching you outside of Sweet Mix for the past two Christmases. This is going to be the third one and the first time I had enough guts to actually talk to you. I’ll admit, at first I thought you had magic powers. I mean, you are an elf, after all, but then I wondered why would you be standing around outside in the cold for such long hours to sell matchbooks and candy canes if you had magic powers? It didn’t make sense to me.” He shrugged lightly. “And then after that, I guess I was just curious about you.”

  “Curious,” Brynne wasn’t sure if she liked or detested the word yet.

  “I know it’s weird,” Carter mumbled. “There was always a small part of me that hoped you wouldn’t be there by the next Christmas.”

  “Oh.” Brynne’s voice trembled at the admission. “You wanted me gone.”

  “Not in that way!” Carter dropped the sponge to palm his face. “Ugh, this is hard.”

  “It’s not hard to wish someone gone,” Brynne muttered.

  “No, that’s not it at all.”

  “Then you’re going to have to explain to me what you mean.”

  “I was hoping you’d be gone because maybe that meant you were inside with your family. That you were out of the cold and doing something better than standing on a freezing street corner while people ignore you.” He noticed Brynne’s shoulders slack. “So when I finally got to talk to you I was surprised that your home life wasn’t so great. And that makes me nervous because now that I finally have you in here and out of the cold and safe, I just put you right to work when you should be resting,” he tacked on quickly.

  She mulled this over. This was certainly not the romantic day her little sister had been wishing upon her. She shifted and her flats left small scuff marks in the matted flour.

  “You’ll have to forgive me for getting so defensive.” She sighed yet again, seeming to build up her courage with excessive breath. “I don’t know how to talk to the person who saved my life.”

  “I didn’t save your life…”

  “You did,” she insisted. “Earlier today when you took me out of the snow, I thought for sure I was being carried off by my guardian angel,” she admitted. “You could have left me there, you could have ignored me, and you didn’t. You helped me. And to me, that makes you like a guardian angel.” Then she smiled, a real smile that seemed to brighten the room.

  Carter couldn’t stop his cheeks from turning bright red and hot. This elf, this girl was sweet and intelligent and… well, beautiful. And her smile was radiant, like a decorated Christmas tree shining in a dark room. It was almost too much.

  “I’m no guardian angel,” he muttered.

  “In that moment you were to me, Carter,” she said. “You have to know that. Thank you so much. For all of this. It means so much to me.”

  “Okay, okay,” Carter said, looking at his shoes. “There’s no need to get heavy about it. You were in trouble. I could help. You don’t have to paint me in such a bright light. I’m not so great, Brynne.” His eyes trailed back over to Brynne with a mixture of growing dread and excitement. Brynne was way more interesting than any of the girls at his school, but she was also an elf. Having any contact with her w
as dangerous to both of them, yet here he was thinking about taking her out in public. Was there somewhere they could go and be safe?

  There was a place – he had heard his mother complaining about it once or twice. “When we finish up, I’m taking you out,” he said, suddenly firm. “I know a place we can have lunch. I’m taking you out on a real date.”

  Brynne blinked, her smile evaporating as her jaw dropped.

  “I—you – date?” she squeaked. “M-me?” Coherent sentences escaped her entirely at the moment. Her cheeks bloomed so hot, she thought she might thaw out the snow all the way outside.

  His sudden confidence threatened to crack as he watched her reaction. “That is, unless you don’t want to?”

  “N-no!” Brynne blurted, taking a step towards him. “I didn’t think—”

  “Thinking is a bad idea,” Carter said. He couldn’t believe how cute she was. No girl at school would have reacted to a date proposal the same way Brynne did. His hazel eyes softened. “I kinda thought that was clear when I asked you to spend Saturday with me, but I guess it wasn’t,” he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess that’s my own fault. I wasn’t planning to see you until later in the day after I’d finished these chores.”

  “It’s fine!” Brynne said. “I mean, it’s fine.” She willed her heart to stop pounding violently against her chest. Carter’s kindness was almost too good to be true. Too good to be true. Her expression darkened. “And you’re not messing with me, are you?”

  “Messing with you? How?”

  “This is for real, right?” She took a step back. “Taking me out, I mean. This isn’t a joke?”

  “It’s not a joke, Brynne,” Carter said immediately. His eyes spoke more truth than his words ever could. “I even know a place that serves, uh, your kind. How does that sound? Do you want to go out to lunch with me after we finish a few more chores?”

  Brynne nodded eagerly, and her glowing smile suddenly returned, like the sun bursting through the clouds. “That’d be great. Um, just so you know, I can’t pay for my part,” she reminded him with a slightly embarrassed expression.

  “You think I’m going to make you pay?”

  “I don’t know—”

  “I’ll cover the bill for lunch. It’s no problem.”

  Brynne resisted a sudden urge to run up and try to hug him. This is a human who feels pity for me, she thought. Don’t push your luck.

  Still, the idea of it made her cheeks hot.

  An elf hugging a human... maybe it wasn’t as far-fetched as it seemed.

  Chapter Ten

  Around noon Carter wiped off his forehead with his sleeve and turned to Brynne with a smile. “That should be most of it. We cleaned the stockroom floors, the kneading board, and dusted out all the baskets. Not too much left to do for now. I know I have a few more chores to take care of and I’m sorry if you’re bored—”

  “It’s fine,” Brynne said, hoping to calm him.

  “I’d say you could go home, but with your—”

  “Like I said, he was drunk. It won’t happen again. I’m sure of it.”

  Carter arched his eyebrow, still looking a bit unsure, but he didn’t fight with her about it. He wanted to make the day a pleasant one and now that most of the chores were out of the way, he hoped they could have some fun. He grabbed their coats and walked back to the register to find Brynne warming herself by the heater as he got ready to go.

  “It’s still a bit cold,” he muttered. “And we’ll be outside.”

  “Something wrong?” Brynne asked.

  He shook his head. “N-no, not wrong so much.” He frowned. “You know I don’t care that you’re an elf, but others might. Especially in this part of town.”

  “I can go ahead or wait behind—”

  “Not in that coat,” Carter muttered. “You’ll freeze.” He glanced towards the window and down at his heavy peacoat. He dropped down to one knee. “I have an idea.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. How would you feel about hiding in my coat until we get to the outskirts?” he asked carefully.

  “You want me to ride in your pocket?”

  Carter’s expression only turned more apologetic. That shut her up. “I know it’ll be weird, but I can’t think of a safer way to get you to the outskirts without people seeing while at the same time not having to worry about you freezing to death in the cold.”

  “Oh! Uh, gosh, the thought never occurred to me.” Brynne tried to smile to hide how flustered she was. “How bad can it be? I guess I’ll fit in your pocket okay.”

  “I don’t actually have a pocket big enough to hold you. See? This is why I said you weren’t that small.” He tried to play it off with a wink but he could tell that they were both thoroughly embarrassed.

  “So what are you going to do?” Brynne asked. She was excited and nervous at the same time. Plus there was a horrible voice which reminded her that she wasn’t good enough to be seen with Carter in public in town. She tried remember that at least he was taking her out. “If I can’t fit in your pocket.”

  “I was going to do this,” Carter explained. He removed one arm from his sleeve and held it crooked under his coat. “I can hold you here and then button it closed. That’d probably be better than you trying to hang on to my shirt the whole time. And it won’t be long! I promise I’ll rush.”

  Brynne pursed her lips as Carter held out his hands, inviting her.

  “I promise I’ll try to make this as painless as possible,” he muttered.

  Her lips parted, and Carter kept rambling.

  “It won’t be too bad, I hope,” he said. He used his other hand to open his heavy coat. “Do you want to try?”

  “Why not?” she said at last, her voice more steady than she expected it to be. “I trust you, Carter.” Could he feel how quickly her heart was racing? Excitement and anticipation fought for dominance in her chest.

  Carter’s careful smile turned more genuine. “You’re braver than you look, you know,” he couldn’t help noting. As he lifted her gently from the floor, he was surprised at how cold her skin was, even through her jacket.

  He was going to have to do something about that.

  Without wasting another moment, he tucked the elf into his coat and situated her into the crook of his arm. It was surprisingly simple and she was small enough that he could still button up his coat. Walking down the street with one of his arms not in the sleeve would look a little odd, but it was the best he could do. Inwardly, he was a little relieved that she had agreed to it. He hated the voice in his head that told him so, but hanging out with an elf was bad news in this part of town. He frowned and tried to banish those thoughts as he switched off the heater and stood up.

  “Here we go,” he said, feeling like he had to explain every little movement to her. “Try not to talk too much once we’re outside, okay? Uh. Please?” He wanted to look down at her, but couldn’t bring himself to do it when she was pressed up against his chest. He swallowed hard, approached the door and started to push it open. “You sure about this?” he asked one last time. “You’re ready?”

  Brynne took a fistful of his sweater in hand. Her voice was quieter than usual, but no less steady. “I’m ready.” She huddled in this warm, dark nest and marveled at the turns this day was taking.

  Date, Brynne reminded herself. Every one of those long swinging steps was bringing her closer to a real, actual date!

  ***

  It was difficult for Carter not to feel paranoid about what he held in his arms as he strode through the town, but he was feeling better after a few blocks. The air had a bite to it which kept people away and so he was relieved that not only were the main streets barren, but what few people were out hardly paid attention to him. No one recognized him.

  As he turned down the road that ran to the outskirts of town, he slowed to look in the window of an old-fashioned looking toy Shoppe. It wasn’t much of a shop. Old wagons. Discarded kites. And he froze up when he notic
ed a doll in the window, not that much taller than the woman hidden in his coat. He read over the little tag attached to the doll’s wrist in the window.

  Chasing Winter.

  He couldn’t tell if this was the name for the model of the doll, or the doll itself but that wasn’t what caught Carter’s attention. It was Chasing’s clothing. The lithe doll was bundled up for the winter in clothes that looked finer and of higher quality than Brynne’s. Little leather boots and heavy looking leggings. A bright, white ribbed turtleneck sweater and a red and black plaid scarf with mittens and a hat to match. He swallowed hard when he noticed the doll wore a delicate silver chain with a snowflake charm at the end.

  It was perfect.

  “Everything okay?” a groggy voice whispered up to him from his chest.

  He shook his head as though coming out of a trance and hustled away from the doll and the toy shop before he even had a chance to look at the price.

  “Everything’s fine,” he said quickly. “We’re almost there. Once I cross the main street and get to the first building, I can let you out.” His boots crunched across the ice and snow as he moved and his mind wandered. How much could a doll possibly cost?

  Brynne yawned as Carter’s step began to slow. She had fallen asleep in a human’s coat on her way to a lunch date. It was truly a day of firsts. Suddenly, the steps halted and she felt him bend down and open his coat. She shied away into his chest as bright light flooded her cozy space.

  “We’re there already?” she asked, blinking and squinting against the sunlight.

  The arm beneath her shifted and brought her out into the cold, guiding her carefully to the ground. She stepped back and craned her neck to look around.

  “I’ve seen this place before. I used to pass it when I would go to school.” She looked up at Carter. “Have you been here before?”

  He shook his head and remained crouched down. “No, actually. I’ve heard about it, though. Apparently they don’t discriminate against anyone. As long as you can pay, that is.” For a moment he frowned. If word ever got out that he had snuck in a place like the co-diner with Brynne, his friends and family would never let him live it down.