Candy Man (7 page)

The only history Adam had with Candy Heaven and Finn was walking through the front door.

“Maybe you just seem like a decent guy,” Finn said with dignity. “Can’t you just deal with that?”

Adam grunted and turned toward the river. Without talking, the two of them resumed their walk, and Adam delved into the fries before they could get cold.

“So,” Finn said as they approached the fence near the bottom of the walk, “what was your morning like?”

Adam shrugged. “My cousin’s cat is still alive—that’s something.” And with that he related the misadventures of Gonzo, the ancient tiger-striped cat, and how apparently the medicine regulated Gonzo’s blood sugar and
absolutely needed
to be given every night and every morning.

“Oh no!” Finn gasped, clearly taken with poor man-eating Gonzo’s fate. “What did your cousin say when you texted him?”

Oh Lord. Adam didn’t even have to consult his phone to remember the text verbatim.
Please don’t freak out. The cat was a rescue and old when I got him five years ago. If it’s his time, it’s his time. Not your fault.

“He said the cat was old and to just keep doing my best. But you know? Rico’s my only family. It’s not like I want him to come back in June and have no cat, right? It would be a shitty way to pay him back when he’s done me a solid by letting me stay at his place.”

“Well, yeah. But he doesn’t expect the impossible from you, Adam. Maybe just give yourself a break about it, okay?”

Adam shook his head. “I mean, unless I can get back in school, I don’t know what else I got, right? It’s like this stupid cat and the big-assed dog are my last chance to prove I’m useful as a human being!”

Finn stared at him in horror. “Jesus, Adam, how old are you? Thirty?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“That’s even worse! You’re barely older than me—you can’t possibly hinge your whole existence on the life or death of an aging cat. C’mon, find something else! I mean, so Rico’s your only decent family. You can draw, and it’s great. You’re pretty smart, because you walked into a job knowing nothing and made yourself useful pretty fast, and you have a sense of humor, because you were going to say you were abducted by aliens instead of beat up by a cat—”

“Only to make you happy,” Adam admitted, feeling bad.

“But that’s
awesome
!” Finn said, practically dancing. “That means you want to impress
me
!”

Adam stopped, folding up the empty fry container and shoving it into the bag almost automatically. “You know, we should probably get back to the shop. I think my break is almost over.”

“You do, don’t you?” Finn asked after they’d turned around and started walking back.

“Do what?” Adam responded, but he knew.

“Want to impress me?”

Adam swallowed, thought about how the kid had just showed up and insisted Adam pony up. He owed Finn. “An embarrassing amount,” he admitted.

Finn pumped his fist. “Woot!” And Adam’s mind took a picture of that moment right there. He was so happy. Adam wanted to freeze time. He started planning the drawing as he dropped the trash in the bin and let Finn lead the way back to work.

He didn’t realize until he got inside that Finn hadn’t taken his silly fleece hat back, or his hand-knitted Doctor Who scarf. Adam wore them on the jog home and on his walk out with Clopper. The whole time he had that kid’s smell, that happy, sandwich smell, keeping him warm.

T
HE
NEXT
day he brought Finn the picture—and his hat and scarf back—but even he could see that the deli was busy when he stopped by. Ravi and Anish had given him twenty-five dollars for his drawing, and he made it up to the counter to order a turkey sandwich (because the garlic fries were giving him gas), but as soon as Finn saw him, traffic stopped.

“You came? You came, and we’re busy? Oh my God! That sucks! But you
came
!”

Adam glanced around him, wondering if he was going to get grief because he was apparently blocking the entire line.

“Well, uhm, yeah. I owed you a picture. And you need your hat. And your scarf.”

“And you need…,” Finn led and Adam blushed.

“A turkey sandwich. Just chips this time.”

Finn nodded soberly. “The garlic makes you fart, doesn’t it? Yeah, me too, but they’re nice to have some of the time. Okay, with coffee and the discount that’ll be $5.45.”

Adam opened his mouth to protest the discount, because Finn knew damned well that was about half what his order should cost, but arguing about it would just make Finn look bad in front of the crowd.

And judging by the way Finn was grinning at him while he called the order to the woman behind him, he knew it too.

Adam gave him the money, scowling, and the woman—who had hair very much the color of Finn’s, and big blue eyes framed with strawberry blonde lashes as well—gave Finn a droll look as she took the tag from him.

“Now go sit down and wait. I’ll have time to bring it out in a minute,” Finn said, handing back the change.

Adam growled and shook his head, and then took the last seat and sat down. While he was waiting, he pulled out his sketchbook and started working. Some of those more personal pictures of Finn needed fleshing out, but he figured that wasn’t safe to work on here—not when Finn could see him. Instead he pulled up a newer page, one he’d sketched the night before and inked in, featuring Darrin’s store in bold lines and bright primary and secondary colors. Working at every juncture in the store was a chibi version of one of the employees—a short, squat Anish, a less short and squat Ravi, a Carolyn with bejeweled glasses, a Joni with spiky hair and lots of piercings, and so on. All of the employees he’d met so far—the boy with the nose ring, the girl who liked pigtails and striped socks—all of them were there in their squat little cartoon versions, and Adam thought it was a good piece. Maybe he’d give it to Darrin for Christmas, and to say thank you for the job. He was looking forward to that. Ravi had taken the first one he’d drawn and pinned it up behind the register. This one was better, and Adam hated indebtedness.

“Ooh,” Finn said behind him. “Nice. That’ll look good in the store.”

Carefully he set down Adam’s order, plus a hot chocolate, and Adam looked up at him, knowing his smile was a little shy and unable to help it. “Sort of a thank-you to Darrin, you know?”

“That’s a good idea. Here, let me see!”

And before Adam could protest, Finn had taken the sketchbook from his hand.

“Uhm, yanno, that’s sort of like a diary, really, and—”

Oh no. Finn hadn’t looked directly behind his own pictures. No, even worse, he’d gone to the beginning of the sketchbook, where Adam was still working out things from Baghdad, and the things he’d drawn….

Finn’s bright, shining face sobered, went dark, as he looked at a picture of bodies in the desert, bones protruding, a child’s hand flopped backward in a parody of elegance, rags of clothing fluttering about the corpses like moths.

“Oh, Adam. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s, uhm, you know. Sort of private,” Adam said, more clearly this time. “I don’t want you to see—I mean some of that stuff is pretty ugly.” He went to take it from Finn, but to his surprise, Finn didn’t let go.

“That’s fine,” Finn said, trying to make eye contact while Adam was bent on looking at the plant in the corner by the trash can. Finn’s hand on his shoulder, warm and a little moist from just being washed, finally made him look up. “No, Adam—it’s fine that this is a diary. I’m sorry I intruded. But don’t think you have to protect me from this, okay? I’m not really Finn from the cartoon, you know? I’m a grown-up. If you served active duty, I know you had to see some awful stuff. Don’t hide it from me because you think I can’t take it.”

Adam nodded and reached for the book. “Uhm, thanks.” God, could this moment end?

“No. Adam, I mean it.” Finn put the book in Adam’s hands and squeezed his shoulder again. Then he broke Adam’s world by bending down and placing a warm, chaste kiss on Adam’s temple. “I’m a big boy. I can deal with this too.”

Adam couldn’t answer. He was busy gaping and trying to contain the shivers that racked his body in the aftermath of that careless kiss. He managed a nod and gratefully put the sketchbook in his pack.

“The sandwich looks, uh… really good.”

Finn shook his head and sighed. “I really just fucked with your head, didn’t I?”

Adam nodded and talked through a full mouth. “’S a great sandwich.”

“Yeah, Adam. You enjoy that.”

Adam looked fixedly at the plant. “I did,” he confessed. They both knew he wasn’t talking about the sandwich, but he didn’t have the words for anything else.

Finn started talking—rambling, really—about something, anything, and Adam could only be grateful. It was uncanny the way the kid knew how to settle Adam down. When Adam was done with lunch, he wiped his mouth and managed a twitch of his lips for Finn, who had worked really hard not to let silence take over the table.

“It was real human, you know? To sit and talk to me. Oh!” He’d almost forgotten. He reached for his backpack again and pulled out a little cardboard packet, which he shoved at Finn, embarrassed. “Here. It’s, well, more personal than the last one—”

“Do you have any in your diary?” Finn asked, so dead-on Adam knew his Latino-mocha skin washed ruddy just from the heat in his face.

“Of, uhm,
you
?”

Finn shook his head. “Asked and answered. That’s okay, then. Even if this one isn’t personal, I know you’re thinking about me.” He smiled then, luminously, and Adam was possessed with the desire to spill his sketchbook out for Finn to see, to share his secrets, to invite this kid into his heart.

“But I hope you like this one,” he said weakly.

Finn looked at the picture with avid eyes. “That’s the other night at sunset, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“We were standing closer than that,” Finn told him surprisingly. “I know because I realized how brown your eyes are.”

Adam’s face heated all over again. “Yeah, well. Macias. Mexican. You know.”

“Hot,” Finn said playfully, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah, it is getting that way in here. You know, I gotta—”

Finn’s face fell. “Yeah. You gotta go. Hey, when do you get off tonight?”

“Seven, wh—”

“Good. I get off at six thirty. I’ll pick you up.”

“Where’re we—”

“Movie. My treat. Popcorn too.”

“I gotta walk the dog!” If Adam had paws, all four of them would be splayed out, just like Clopper’s when Adam tried to pull him away from some especially tasty-smelling dead thing.
Abort, abort, abort! Friendly human is taking me somewhere I don’t want to go!

“Good! I’ll go with you. We can dose the cat, walk the dog, and
then
go to the movies. Now hurry, you’re going to be late. Don’t forget to wait for me!”

And Finn got up and left, returning to work and the line of customers who hadn’t diminished one bit, even though other people who looked much like Finn were busy serving them.

Adam was left gaping after him, aware that he’d just been hauled into a date by the collar.

The people at Candy Heaven were
not
sympathetic.

“So,” Darrin said delicately as Adam returned from lunch a few minutes early, “how is Finn?”

“He’s fine. He’s terrific. I think he’s taking me on a date. Does that bother anybody else? That should bother you. It bothers me. Is
anybody else freaked out about that
?”

Darrin listened to him ramble as Adam put on his apron and stationed himself behind the counter at the weighing bowl. Then Darrin pulled a gummi lemon sour from a pile of them, extracted it from the wrapper, and while Adam was in full cry, asked, “Are you allergic to lemon or sugar?”

“No, but did you hear what I—omph!”

Adam’s entire face tried to squeeze shut, and he fought not to swallow the little round ball of goo down the wrong pipe. It took him several minutes of rolling the thing around in his mouth before he sucked in a mouthful of spit, tucked it between his teeth and his cheek, and managed, “What in the hell is the matter with you!” before he had to swallow again.

“Well, my boy, I figured if you didn’t stop talking and go out on your date, you’d become a sour old man in no time at all. This was just a taste of it.”

Adam squinched his eyes shut and wondered how in the hell those kids who ate this shit by the pound could manage it. As he did that, he had a vision of his grandmother, nose wrinkled, eyes narrowed, looking
just like
she’d been sucking lemons all day, while she told Adam’s mother what a loser he was and how he was going to turn out
just like her
.

“It’s awful,” he said after another moment, although the candy itself was starting to grow on him.

“Yes, well, you will be too if your whole life is about being alone.”

Adam regarded him suspiciously, rolling the squishy thing around in his mouth as it disappeared. God, some people
chewed
those things. The thought boggled him. “You say that, but I don’t see
you
parading anything hot through the hallowed halls of Candy Heaven.”

Darrin’s smile was perfectly self-contained. “
I
could be entertaining an entire brothel of sweet young things for all you know. I find that the more people know about my personal life, the less people are apt to listen when I am giving them
perfectly wonderful
advice. Now keep sucking your lemon, Adam, and I’m going to go into the back room and do paperwork.”

“You don’t do paperwork. You watch Carolyn do paperwork.”

“Yes, well, that will be fun too.”

And with that Darrin disappeared, leaving Adam in charge of the counter, feeling strangely bereft now that the candy had gone.

“He’s right, you know,” Joni said from the chocolate counter. “Finn’s a great guy. I mean, at worst you get to spend an evening out. What’s the harm?”

“I got nothing to offer him,” Adam muttered. “What kind of candy was that? Can I get a few?”

Joni sighed, moved to the appropriate barrel, and took out a handful, which she thrust at him. “He seems to think otherwise. God knows why, because right now you are irritating the
fuck
out of
me
. But then, I’m not all that crazy about things with peen.”