Friday Figments: COMPLEX CANDY

As I pick through the yellow basket of cellophane wrapped candies, I’m certain there’s some kind of mistake.

 Lion’s Fur, Lion’s Fur, Lion’s Fur.

 “What’s lion’s fur supposed to taste like?”

 I’m not the type to chat with store employees, more of a straight-in-straight-out kind of shopper. When I had pulled in to the boxy pink house with the loopy painted words: CHERISHABLE CONFECTIONS, I had expected to spot a unique box of chocolates, put down the cash, and rush out of there to pick up Lisa for dinner at Le Caille.

Instead, I’d been accosted by the gagging thickness of a licorice-y, lavender smell and impeded by a maze of colored baskets offering candy with labels like Caterpillar Toes, Rabbit’s Breath, and, of course, Lion’s Fur.

 The pre-teen keeping shop tosses her mass of bead-braided hair over her shoulders so that everything clicks and clacks together. She stoops to draw out a blue basket, saying, “I like the Cricket Blood better, salty and sweet.“

“No kidding.”

 I admit that as I drive away I glance back, but I know I'm better off buying Lisa some carnations.

Photo Attribution: By Evan-Amos (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons