In search of the perfect Valentine's Day gift.

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Thanks to Puddin' for a little editing.

Crazy for Candy
by Terry Volkirch

A lanky teenage boy with long, damp brown hair slowly walked along the 1st Avenue sidewalk, keeping close to the row of tall buildings for a little shelter from a cold light rain. He didn't mind getting wet when he dressed well for it but he didn't think to bring a hat. He focused too much on his mission — stalking the ever elusive perfect gift for his girlfriend.

A gust of wind swirled and misted his face, leaving him to grumble about the loss of the ride free bus zone. "Stupid penny pinching King County Metro," he said as he studied his reflection in the nearest store window. He looked miserable, not at all how he felt inside. He loved shopping, and in spite of the weather, he had to admit that if he rode the bus, he wouldn't be able to window shop. So he carried on, waiting and hoping for inspiration because his girlfriend, Candy, refused to give him any gift ideas for Valentine's Day.

The boy briefly remembered why she went by the name, Candy. Her real name was Esmeralda, after one of her great grandmothers, but as a little girl, she went crazy for candy — really crazy according to some of the stories she told him. His favorite stories involved her visits to Santa, which nearly always had her grabbing a candy cane and keeping it in her mouth during the whole visit. She wouldn't talk with her mouth full so when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, all she'd do was point to the candy cane. If anyone tried to take her candy away, she'd snarl like a dog jealously guarding a bone. Her behavior sounded crazy but cute, causing him to chuckle when he imagined the scene. A little girl who went crazy for candy had to be called Candy.

Inspiration took that moment to strike. Of course candy would be the perfect gift! He almost smiled but then turned glum when he couldn't think of exactly what kind of candy to get. A large heart-shaped box of assorted chocolates would be too cliched, licorice vines and malted milk balls too ordinary. His mission continued, one sodden step after another.

In spite of the wind whipping his hair about his ears, in spite of the sounds of angry traffic, the boy suddenly picked out a single, crystal clear voice calling to him. It sounded like his girlfriend.

She beckoned him to follow her voice. "Hurry. This way," she said. "Please hurry. Find me."

The boy hurried along, trying to dodge those few who also braved the weather. Everyone stayed close to the buildings for what little shelter they offered.

"Cross the street. Left! Left!" his girlfriend's voice urged, getting louder as he went. "Down Spring Street. Hurry or you'll miss me."

He darted out across the street, straining to hear the voice. Only the voice held his attention. The traffic lights were against him but luckily no cars hit him.

Walking quickly down the hill towards the waterfront, he made it past Post Avenue, followed by Western Avenue.

"Nearly there," the voice happily told him. "Nearly there."

"This is crazy," the boy muttered. "I'm crazy." Still, he followed the voice.

He passed under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, nearly stumbled over the Waterfront Streetcar tracks and jogged across the crosswalk to Pier 54. The voice seemed to call to him from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the pier so he walked past a couple tall wooden totem poles and entered the store.

Once inside, the voice quieted to a murmur, and too many odd things distracted him, things like shrunken heads, mummies, real stuffed animals with two heads and giant microbe plushies. He couldn't help himself. He browsed as much to look at the strange assortment of exhibits and goods as he did to find his girlfriend. There weren't many places a person could hide in the store. The boy figured it wouldn't be long before he either found her or she showed herself so he contented himself with a little shopping.

Some fudge looked quite tasty but he didn't see anything in the way of candy other than a scorpion lollipop. No way would he buy anything edible with a real scorpion in it! He wandered everywhere and just when he was about to give up on finding his girlfriend, he saw it. Alone on a shelf was a single small box of candy hearts, the ones with short phrases on them like "Love You" and "Be Mine." The mostly pink box had a plastic heart-shaped window cut into the front, allowing one to peer inside at the candy. Expecting to see several different colors, the candy surprised him. The box only contained pink and light blue hearts and all of the pink hearts seemed to read "Be Her" while all of the blue hearts he could see read "Be Him."

The boy grabbed the box and shook it several times but the phrases remained consistent.

"How odd," he muttered.

The box kept making him think of his girlfriend and his hand couldn't seem to let go of it. Immediately after his examination, his feet moved him to a pimply-face young man waiting to ring up his purchase. The short, skinny man wore small round glasses and a "Ye Olde Curiosity Shop" tee shirt that displayed a few of the store's exhibits, like one of the mummies.

"How much is this?" the boy asked the clerk.

The clerk wrinkled his nose when he was handed the item. "This isn't one of ours," he said after carefully looking at all sides. It had no price tag or bar code on it. "Someone probably lost it."

"Do you have a lost and found?"

"Just keep it… for your honesty," the clerk told him, smirking as he handed it back.

The boy slowly left the store, mildly irritated by the clerk and unsatisfied by his find. He couldn't help thinking that a box of lost candy hearts would make a poor gift. But something deep inside still told him it was perfect. He'd found the perfect gift.

Just after going back outside, he stuffed the box in his coat pocket and heard some muffled giggling. He jerked his head left and then right with no girl in sight, and the giggling stopped as abruptly as it began. After looking around a little, he had enough of the rain and phantom voices. He walked back the way he came towards the nearest express bus stop.

He told himself he didn't have a lot of money so maybe it was okay. It was the thought that counted. Wasn't it? He'd buy a nice card, wrap up the box of candy and use his creativity to make up some sort of special presentation for his girlfriend, something like hand-feeding her the candy by candlelight… at midnight. He'd give it more thought on the bus ride home.

~o~O~o~

"It's okay, Doug," Candy told her cautious boyfriend. "My parents trust us. I trust us. So relax. My bedroom is just another room. Right?"

The girl's parents weren't home for the weekend but they trusted their only daughter to be good. There would be no wild parties, no parties of any kind, and her bed would be slept in by no one but her. The girl could still be wonderfully spontaneous, just in small steps with a promise of much more to come. The anticipation was delightful.

The boy stood next to the twin-size bed where his girlfriend sat, looking up at him with her beautiful green eyes. He looked down into those eyes and lost himself for a few self-indulgent seconds. His hands tangled in her long, golden hair and his lips suckled on the emerald stud in her left ear. She moaned and turned her head, her lips searching out his until they merged for a long, steamy kiss.

"Hello? Doug!"

He snapped out of his daydream as Candy pulled him down to sit next to her on the forest green comforter. He yelped and kept telling himself that it was just another room.

"So?" the girl interrupted his thoughts again. "Did you have a nice shopping trip yesterday?"

"It was odd but okay. I got you something and I think it's perfect but I'm still working on the presentation part."

She smiled. "Presentation. I like that. You're so thoughtful." She sighed. "But I wish I could've gone with you. I know you were shopping for me but we could've split up or something."

"I didn't go to the mall. I was window shopping in the rain. You wouldn't have liked it."

"I like the rain!" she insisted, following up with an adorable pout.

It was his turn to sigh. He so wanted to kiss those pouting lips. It's just another room. It's just another room.

"Well, no matter," she said. "I got you a little something last week so everything is all set. We can meet Thursday before school to exchange our cards and gifts. How does that sound?"

"Thursday?" he said with a puzzled look.

"Valentine's Day!"

"Right! Thursday it is. I'll see you…."

Candy interrupted him, lunging for his neck. She liked marking him with love bites. He wasn't the most attractive boy in school but she did notice a few girls give him extra long looks in class. The love bites would show those girls that he was taken.

Doug patiently waited for her to finish and finally gave her what they both wanted — a nice, long make-out session. It was okay. Really. He kept himself from going too far by repeating his new mantra.

It's just another room. It's just another room

~o~O~o~

Valentine's day arrived, cold and wet, as it most often did in the Seattle area, and Doug hurried to get over to see Candy as soon as possible. He quickly dressed and tied his hair back in a low pony tail before rushing downstairs to inhale a breakfast bar, but at least he took the time to dress properly for the weather, with a warm sweater and a waterproof coat and hat. He didn't want a repeat of his soaked shopping trip.

He didn't really like the idea of taking an umbrella, and he tried to resist. He made it as far as the entry way when he saw the unwanted item leaning against the door frame, almost like it was waiting for him. Sighing, he tucked it under his arm and eventually opened it on his walk over to Candy's house. Once in a great while, he still had a problem with male pride. Umbrellas were for wimps.

The sidewalk had turned into a mine field of puddles over night, and sometimes the street offered the path of least wetness. Doug just had to remember to watch for cars. His mind was far ahead of him as he walked, already with his beloved girlfriend. Lucky for him, he made it without incident. He rushed up the front steps and Candy opened the front door before he could knock. He spun the water off of the umbrella with a flourish and closed it, leaving it in the entry way as he stepped inside.

"Anxious much?" he asked her with a smile in his eyes as he removed his coat and hat.

She remained silent, closely watching him hang his coat on a hook by the door and taking his greeting card and wrapped gift box out of his inside coat pocket. Then, after he turned to face her, she stuck out her tongue at him and laughed. "We both are. I watched you half jogging to get here. And I know it wasn't because of the rain because you had an umbrella, so don't deny it."

"Guilty!" he said.

"Oh. By the way, what's with the umbrella? You never use an umbrella."

"I really don't know. A little voice told me to bring it… so I did." He gave her a nervous smile as he remembered the voice he followed to find her gift. He swore it was her voice that he heard that day but she seemed sincere about having stayed home.

Candy laughed at his discomfort and grabbed his hand, pulling him upstairs to her bedroom. He had to quicken his pace to keep her from dragging him. They got to the bedroom and Candy let go of his hand, going right for her bed and bouncing up and down with excitement after she sat on it. "Come on. Have a seat. I won't bite… yet." She smiled.

Doug remained standing for the moment, nervous once again. "Are your parents home?"

"No. They already left for work. But don't worry. We don't have that much time before we have to leave for school. Now stop wasting time and sit!" She yanked him down beside her and quickly held out her card and a little gift box wrapped in red and gold foil paper with a little gold bow.

He smiled, putting his card and gift on her lap before taking hers.

"You first!" she said. "Please hurry."

Her last words rattled him. They reminded him of the voice that urged him on to find his gift. He had to shake his head to clear his thoughts before he opened Candy's card.

The card had a long, flowery verse that nearly made him cry with happiness. He held back the tears though. He didn't want to appear weak in front of his girlfriend. With a quick thanks, he tried to give Candy a kiss but she fended him off. She wanted him to open her gift.

At her direction, he carefully removed the red and gold wrapping paper and opened a little jewelry box. The box contained a delicate gold ring with a flat oval that contained his initials, DFT. The ring looked a little small so he tried it on his pinky finger. It wouldn't go over his knuckle.

"This is nice but it's too small," he said, staring down at the ring half way on his finger. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that he wished his right ring finger was small enough for it to fit. "Sorry."

He looked up at her to see her smiling, and he briefly wondered why when the ring didn't fit. Then his eyes widened with surprise as he watched her ignore his card and suddenly start tearing through the pink wrapping paper on his gift.

"I'll read your card soon enough," she said, as if reading his mind. "This is too important to wait. Sorry."

As she got the last of the paper off, she turned the box around to look through the clear plastic heart-shaped window to examine the candy inside and she had a curious reaction. First, she sighed with relief, then she started crying.

He could tell they were tears of happiness so he moved forward to hug her, and she returned it, whispering in his ear, "I'm so happy. You found it. You found my gift."

Doug pulled back, looking confused. "Wait a minute. I thought it was my gift."

"Technically, yes. You found it and returned it to me. But I created it in the first place and sent it out randomly somewhere in Seattle."

He shook his head and said the only word to occur to him at the moment, "What?"

"It was a test. And you passed! It's true love!" She suddenly squealed with joy and smothered him with a surprisingly strong hug and zillions of quick little kisses all over his face.

When the pace of the kissing slowed, the confused boy pulled back to try for some answers. "What are you talking about?"

A little frustration flashed in her eyes but she patiently tried to explain everything to him. Her family came from a long line of witches and she created a magic test to find her true love. He must have heard her gift calling to him because he wouldn't have found it otherwise, and because he could hear it calling to him, that meant that he truly loved her.

Somehow, everything she said rang true. The boy had no trouble believing any of the story having to do with magic. It all made sense because everything about their relationship seemed like magic to him, the crazy way they met with him getting her to do silly tricks for candy, the impossible string of perfect dates. Even the fact that they shared a love of shopping seemed too good to be true. Candy knew he wasn't very masculine and if anything, that brought them closer together. Their love was magic.

Candy's family history didn't bother him. Hearing the phantom voice calling him to the candy hearts didn't bother him either. Only one thing bothered him, for the moment. He chewed his lower lip and turned away before speaking. "You didn't trust me then? I've told you that I love you often enough."

"Oh, Doug. I'm so sorry. I've been through a couple very bad relationships. And my family has to be careful. Please don't be upset with me." She sniffled, just on the verge of having a good cry.

He turned back to face her. "I'm trying not to. I guess I expected our first Valentine's Day together to be a little more traditional than this."

That prompted her to say something else about the candy. "Oh. I'm afraid our family traditions might be a little different than yours. I'm not sure if I should tell you this but there is more to the test."

"Oh? Go on. Don't worry. I do love you. I can take it." He still found it odd that he believed in magic so easily, but he couldn't imagine anything stranger than what he'd already heard.

"Well, there's a way to tell if we're more than just lovers."

"More than just lovers?" He frowned. "You got me again."

"I mean that the candy can tell if we're soul mates. Would you like to try now? We have time before school." She pleaded with her eyes for him to say yes.

He barely nodded and she squealed again and had to force herself not to repeat her hug and kiss attack. Instead, she opened the box of candy and took out one piece of each color, handing him a pink heart that said "Be Her" and keeping the blue heart for herself.

"To start the test, we both chew our candy and swallow. Right after swallowing, we say the phrase on our own candy and then we kiss. That's all there is to it."

"Okay. Sounds easy enough. But how will you know if I passed the test?"

She gave him a very strange, almost feral look and said, "Oh, you'll know. We both will. This is as much a test for me as it is you."

That slightly unnerved him, and it begged a question. "What if I… what if we don't pass? Do we have to break up?" He started crying then. He couldn't stop himself in spite of his normally strong self-control.

"Oh, Doug. Love is too important to throw away. If we love and respect each other, why would we have to break up? If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. Please don't cry." She gave him a gentle smile that warmed his heart and dried up all his tears. "Besides," she added, "something tells me that we'll pass. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me. I can hear it in your voice."

He gave her a faint smile.

"That's the spirit," she told him, and added, "One more thing before we start…. It might help. How far away were you when you first heard my candy calling you?"

"I'm not sure… a few blocks away I think. It's hard to tell. It was near the waterfront up on 1st Avenue and I had to walk a couple blocks before I turned left and headed down to the pier."

"And it was raining, right?"

"Yeah. I take it the rain and distance are a way to measure the strength of our love."

"That's right. My father first heard my mother's gift a little farther away but it wasn't raining for him. Wind and rain interfere with the magic."

"And are your parents soul mates?"

She smiled to show that they were.

"Right. Then let's do this." He popped the candy in his mouth, chewed it thoroughly and swallowed, watching Candy do the same with hers. They both said their phrases at the same time, and then they kissed.

~o~O~o~

A lanky teenage boy and a teenage girl walked to school together in the rain. The boy held a large, black umbrella. The girl wore a red wool coat and matching hat that topped a curtain of damp blonde hair. In spite of the large handbag hanging from her shoulder, she danced around him, nimbly avoiding the puddles.

"Umbrellas are for wimps!" the girl shouted, then laughed with joy.

The boy couldn't help smile, just a little, at her antics. He remained silent for the moment, trying to see the world through the girl's eyes and succeeding rather well.

The girl sidled up next to him, keeping close and holding his arm to take momentary refuge under the umbrella. "I'm so happy," she said, followed by a sigh.

"I can see that," the boy said.

"Oh," the girl said, turning serious. "I didn't think about it from your perspective. I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly. I'm fine. I'm really getting a kick out of watching you. You're such a… girl."

"Oh, you." She playfully swatted his arm.

A flash of gold on her gloveless right hand caught the boy's eye. "By the way," he said, "the ring suits you."

"Oh? I didn't think about that, but yeah. You're right. It looks better on me than it would on you." She grinned wildly.

He started to stick his tongue out at her but caught himself. "It fits you, too," he said. "All planned, of course."

The girl held her hand out in front of her to admire the ring. "Of course. It's obvious," she told him, quietly enough that the spattering of raindrops on the umbrella threatened to drown her out.

"Oh?" the boy prompted.

"It'll let my parents know about us… being soul mates. Er… well… it'll give 'em a clue at least."

"Very good," he acknowledged, thinking that they'd pretty much know anyway considering how differently she was acting.

The girl happily accepted the boy's mild praise and started to pull away to resume her madcap dancing, but the boy firmly held her next to him.

"Please. No more dancing in the rain. Your hair is getting too wet."

"Hah!" the girl said with a smug look. "I have a brush in my bag. I'll be fine."

"Do you have a hair dryer too?"

She frowned, just on the verge of pouting. "No."

"Then I wouldn't advise it. Seriously."

"You know best," she said.

"I do," he agreed with a smirk.

The girl ignored his teasing, preferring to relive a recent memory. "That kiss," she said, half to herself. "It was like we merged for a few seconds. It was so dreamy." She half-closed her eyes and stared into space, sometimes stepping over the occasional puddle blocking her way and sometimes being lifted over a puddle by the boy.

"Seemed like forever," he said after a few minutes before quickly adding. "In a good way."

The girl just smiled.

"There's plenty of candy left too," the boy said. "And more can be made once we run out. We can kiss like that as much as we want."

"Candy," the girl whispered.

"What's that?"

"I was thinking about our names," she said. "I feel like we've outgrown them somehow."

"Yeah. After that kiss I am having trouble with the idea of calling you Candy."

"How about new nicknames? Or we could use middle names. I can call you Frank."

The boy thought about it for a moment and said, "Frankie. Call me Frankie."

"Perfect. My real name is Esmeralda. How about calling me Melda?"

The boy vigorously shook his head no.

"Yeah. I'm not crazy about it either." She stopped the pair of them and placed a well-manicured index finger to her lips, thinking for a minute before smiling. "I've got it. You can call me Ezzie," she said with a wide grin.

"Frankie and Ezzie," he said. "I like it."

"Ezzie and Frankie," the girl corrected, faking a look of haughty disdain. "They should be in alphabetical order."

Frankie laughed as they resumed walking to school. "Ezzie and Frankie it is."

With their new names and a small box full of magic candy, the fate of the two teenagers became hopelessly and happily entwined for the rest of their pleasant and interesting lives.

*** The End ***

~o~O~o~

 © 2013 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.