Unfair Habit of the Sore Eye

Activity of Daily Task from Blogging 101

The whole street had, finally, been encamped by a dreary lull. Even someone who might have been there ten minutes before, would have found the place to be unfamiliar and eerie.

Christmas was always like this. One minute the whole place was buzzing with shoppers and the next second it was silent and cold. It was the shopkeeper’s paradise in sales and a hell in work effort. For Lionel Macias things weren’t different.

His chocolate shop was considered to be the best in town and his renown did not end in his city alone. During Christmas, he would receive orders for delivery of chocolate for places too far away to reach. Work would commence months before the actual festival so that there remained no shortcomings when the day finally arrived.

He almost finished cleaning his collection from the display case when a boy walked into the store. The boy looked like he was considering to buy something from the store but his clothes spoke otherwise. His T-Shirt looked like a dirty grey rag which could easily have been used to wipe the floor, and probably at some time was used for the exact purpose. His pants were tattered, torn in enough places to have lost most of its purpose—to cover the legs. Unless he was an actor straight out of a Christmas play, he had no business being in the shop.

‘We’re closed,’ Lionel said. He did not want to get into a verbal spat with a homeless boy. It was Christmas Eve and he was very tired.

‘Are you going to throw them out?’ he was pointing at the basket of chocolates Lionel was about to carry inside.

‘I am going to store them in my refrigerator.’

‘Can I… Could you… Would you be kind enough to give one to me?’ the boy said.

Lionel looked at him with uncertainty. ‘Why?’

‘I am hungry.’

‘Listen, I don’t run a charity here. Plus, it’s not like one would satisfy your hunger anyway.’

The boy looked dejected and hung his head.

Lionel felt a bit sad for him. He took one piece out of the basket and kept it on the counter top.

‘Here,’ he said. ‘Take this. Because it’s Christmas.’

The boy rushed to take the chocolate in his hand. He cupped it like a prized possession and rushed out.

‘Wow,’ Lionel muttered under his breath. What an ungrateful guy. What was it with him and chocolate? He can’t afford decent food and he had come asking for chocolate. What did he assume – getting one chocolate will change his way of living? What a naive kid.

Lionel shook his head and went back to closing his shop.

A few hundred meters away the boy in tattered clothes entered an alley. The walls on both side provided protection from the cold winds of the night.

He walked to the dead end where another child, younger than him, was lying under bare protection of worn out blankets.

‘Wake up,’ the older boy shook his brother awake.

‘What is it?’ the younger boy looked up irritably.

‘I met Santa.’

This got the little boy’s attention. ‘You did?’

‘Yes, and asked me to give you this,’ he opened his hand to reveal the chocolate he had just acquired. ‘This is the one you wanted, right?’

‘Yes,’ the younger boy quickly attacked the prize. ‘Did Santa tell when mom and dad will be back?’

‘Yes, he said we have to wait for a few more days. Till then, you can have the chocolate.’

The little boy started munching on the chocolate. ‘Merry Christmas,’ he said between bites.

‘Merry Christmas,’ his brother replied as he hugged him.

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Inspired by Nina Karadzic’s post in her blog In Noir Velvet

There was another blog (looking at you Sincerely, Hil) which gave me an idea for a story but that one I will keep for the non-masked version of me.

Note: I hadn’t written a serious fiction for the blog in a long time and thought to do it today. Would like to hear what you think about my interpretation of Nina’s words (after all, short writings can mean so much) or even my story, in general.

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