Cherry Pie
The young man stood in the queue and jangled the loose change in his trouser pocket.
He glanced around at the other people in the pastry shop. An overweight, balding man was in front of him, buying what looked like the shop's entire stock. A teenage girl was behind him, getting out her purse. The two men at the till were middle aged; bored. A ten year old sat on his own in the corner, munching a Danish.
The overweight man seemed to be taking an age to decide what to buy. The dark man wondered if the guy had even brought enough money.
There was a clattering sound of coins hitting the floor and the girl behind him sighed irritably. She clambered down on her knees and started picking up each dollar. He shifted and waited for the man in front to pay and get out of here. He felt a nudge by his leg and looked down.
The girl looked up apologetically.
"Uh – sorry, I think you're standing on my dollar."
He raised his eyebrows and stepped aside slightly. She picked it up and scrambled to her feet. In the corner the kid was finishing his Danish. After a few more moments, he left.
The dark man liked to watch people doing human things. It made him feel different – outside the reach of humanity. Special.
At last the fat guy left. He stepped aside to let him walk away, and then stepped up to the till, tapping the glass counter.
"Good morning sir, welcome to The Pastry Palace. What can I get you today?" The man over the counter didn't look at him. His tone of voice suggested that he said the same thing every five minutes of every day, possibly even more often. The Texas accent annoyed him. Everything about mid land Texas was too cheerful, too twee.
"I'll have the cherry pie." He nodded to the lazy susan that said pie was currently resting on. The girl behind him had talked with hardly any accent. He wondered if she went to the high school here, where he would be visiting later in the evening. She had bouncy blonde hair and a closed face. Did she know the cheerleader?
After the man had handed him the pie he left the shop but waited outside by the door for her to be served and come out. As she left through the door he stepped forward, making her jump.
"I'm sorry." He took off his baseball cap and ruffled his hair. "But I think this is one of yours." He held out a coin. She frowned and made to take it from him.
"Thanks, I… I didn't see you pick it up."
He smiled.
"I don't suppose you know anything about the girl who saved that man from the fire a couple of days ago, would you? Only I read it in the news and was so impressed. I didn't think kids had that kind of courage any more."
She nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I know her. She goes to Union Wells High school."
"I was hoping to meet her, actually. I'm sort of a reporter." The lie came from nowhere.
"Oh, well she'll be at tomorrow night's game and Homecoming. She's on the cheerleading squad with me."
The man smiled again.
"Thanks…?"
"Claire."
The girl smiled vaguely and started off down the high street. If the man had followed her he might have seen her slop her burning coffee over her hand and heal the scorched flesh almost instantaneously. But he set off in the other direction, munching on his pie, thinking about how he would kill the cheerleader. He grinned to himself and took another bite of cherry pie.