Saturday, August 26, 2006

Candy Girl


CANDY GIRL
by Matthew Sanborn Smith

The chocolate girl and the caramel made love. They ate each other, of course, which led to their destruction but also to the creation of something new. When humans reproduce, two become three. When bacteria reproduce, one becomes two. When candy girls reproduce, two become one.

Their daughter was a chocolate/caramel swirl named Ceecee, terribly overweight with blood sugar that was through the roof. She began her life in a state of depression because she remembered her delicious beauty when she was her mothers. Now she was merely delicious, not a bad thing in itself, but when you've had more, it's a disappointment.

She bought new clothes at the local mall during the holiday season and was chased through the halls by a group of rabid children. They wanted to eat her, and not in a loving way. Their teeth tore at her new jeans and pink deck shoes and just when she thought her short life was finished, a security guard came to her aid. He had a long pokey stick and ran the children through their mid-sections one by one, until all twelve of them were spitted.

"I apologize, ma'am," he said. "The mall is always crawling with these little pig-dogs this time of year. Would you like me to escort you to your car?"

His name was Juan and he was single. She found his eating gentle and slimming. She found his loving to be absolutely disgusting. She couldn't have a life with this man, as good as he was.

A week after she left him she stumbled into a bar in Key West and met an enormous woman made of peanut butter and Rice Krispie treats. The woman wept and drank and didn't stop until Ceecee took a bite out of her and then another. The crowd cheered them on. They decided to get a room.

"Eat me!" the PBRK lady screamed an hour later. "Finish me! Please!"

"No," Ceecee said. She'd only nibbled around the edges, eaten the woman down to a managable size, eaten herself huge once more. "Our daughter would be suicidally miserable. It's okay to be loved and remain yourself. It's more than okay. It's necessary." She left the woman a whole, if much smaller, person.

And showed up at Juan's door once more. He beamed as he took her in, but it was only for a night.

So on in this way would Ceecee take love and give love but never with the same person. It was a life as much as any other life, perhaps more colorful. She was careful and caring with her lovers so that at the end of hers days everyone that knew her agreed that she was the tastiest person they had ever met.

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