Oh Sister
Nellie Lovett's older sister decides to write her, telling her that she will be paying her a short visit. She writes that it's all in the kindness in wanting to know how her baby sister's pie shop is running along. Nellie knows better, she knows what her sister's sweet letter really means. It's just an excuse for her older sister to do what she's done to Nellie all of years of them growing up together. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you can review it. Oh yes, of course. I don't own Sweeney Todd because if I did he'd be in my house and under my control. *Sly Cheshire cat-like grin=yayyyyy!*
Nellie stood at her counter rolling out the dough for a fresh pie to go into the oven. She hummed a joyful tune as she rolled the dough thinner and more outward. She looked across the counter to a young 12 year old boy who had pulled a chair up to the counter and was now sitting with his elbows on the counter, and with his chin in his palms. She smiled as she caught his eyes, which had clearly been under somewhat of a spell from watching her rolling, for it took a while until he stopped looking from the dough to her. "Toby darlin', would you mind popping in on Mr. T for a bit and asking if any meat's come for me yet?" Toby nodded and hopped off of the chair. "Wait, remember to know first love, you know how Mr. Todd doesn't like to be bothered when he's shaving a customer." Toby nodded again and ran out the door.
Toby climbed the stairs up to the barber shop slowly. He really didn't want to go, Mr. Todd frightened him. He was always giving him looks that could possibly even scare the boogie man (Nightmare reference). And he knew that Sweeney abused his mum, no matter how many times she told Toby that 'he doesn't mean it', or that 'he doesn't know any better, it's just his way of dealing with his emotions'. He never actually saw it firsthand, but he knew that it happened. Once he got to the door he rapped on it softly, almost instantly the door flung open. Standing there was a tall, frowning man. His hair was almost all black except for the white stripe that ran from the front to the beginning of the back, with how messy it was (I like his hair messy-lol-woah that sounds kinda wrong, saying I like it messy XP) it didn't look like he'd fit the description of any average barber. Toby looked up at him a bit perplexed by how quickly the barber got to the door then cleared his throat. "Uh, mum was jus' wonderin' if any meat had come for 'er. I don't why she'd ask me to ask you, but she did. So I was just wondering if any..."
Sweeney zoned out of the boys blabbering mouth after he said "her", he interrupted him. "Yes Toby, there's some meat down in the bake house. There's enough to probably fill up the night shift"
Toby ran down the stairs back to the pie shop as quickly as he could. The barber's voice and expressions made him shiver. He ran into the pie shop and said "He said there was probably enough to fill up tonight's shift." Mrs. Lovett giggled a bit at the comment, with how popular their little shop had become, she didn't think there would even be just enough. She descended the stairs and while she was gone, the mail arrived. As soon as she came back up Toby came running at her waving a letter in his hand. "Mum, you got some mail mum!" Mrs. Lovett chuckled and ruffled his hair as she took the note from him. She unsealed the envelope and began to read the letter.
My Dear Little Sister,
How are you Nellie, how long has it been since we last saw one another? I'm sure it hasn't been as long as it feels. How are you coming along since your husband passed, are you still, not doing so well? I don't know how you''re doing nowadays, but I've been going a bit downhill. My sales haven't been doing so well, I hear someone's stealing away people from me. No one's mentioned her name but I feel some amount of jealousy for what she's been doing to me. I'm losing money because of this newcomer! Anyway, I'd love to visit you sometime. I've been missing you and I think it would be great to catch up. I was thinking of dropping by someday soon.
Your Loving Older Sister, Mallory
Mrs. Lovett grunted and walked into her parlor. Toby followed behind her and asked what was wrong. "Oh, i's nothing love. Just a bit of some personal bad news is all." Toby asked if her could help and she slowly shook her head smiling. "It's sweet of you to ask sweet, but it's not necessary at all." Toby shrugged and ran off to play. She let out a sigh and fell onto her settee in defeat. There was nothing to stop her sister now, Mallory was going to visit her whether Nellie liked it or not, and she most certainly didn't like it. Her and her older sister had never and she meant never gotten along. It felt like they had been fighting since the day Nellie had been born.
Sweeney came down to the shop later looking for some gin when he noticed that the sign on Mrs. Lovett's door read "Closed." He opened the door and looked around for the baker, he walked towards her parlor where she sometimes liked to sit after a hard day of working. He walked in and saw her sprawled on her settee, stomach down with one leg dangling off the edge and her head resting on both of her arms. He walked around and crouched down in front of her face. He breathed heavily out through his nostrils and her eyes shot open. She gasped as soon she her eyes saw his and she bolted upright. "Oh Mr. T, i's only you. I'm sorry for dozin' off like that, I just got some news I wasn't too thrilled about and I guess falling asleep just distracted me."
Sweeney nodded and continued to frown. "Mrs. Lovett, what is the closed sign all about?"
Mrs. Lovett smiled demurely and sighed. "I'm sorry Mr. Todd, but I was just so upset. I couldn't keep the shop open, I couldn't stop thinking about the letter."
Sweeney raised his eyebrow at her. "What happened my pet? This must have been some letter to make you so upset." She nodded, grabbed the letter and gave it to him. He read it and then gave her a look of udder confusion. "I'm sorry Mrs. Lovett, but I don't see how seeing you sister can be causing you so much anguish."
Nellie frowned and shook her head. "I know, but you love, don't know my older sister. At least, you don't know the real her, you don't know her enough. I've told you about her before, but you don't know her like I do."
Sweeney sat down next to her. "What happened, did you guys have some sort of falling out when you were younger." Nellie looked at him slightly surprised, he never cared about her persona life. If anything he always tried to avoid it at all costs and suddenly he wanted to know all? Or maybe he was just thrilled to hear that there might be someone out there who hates her as much as he does.
Nellie scoffed at his question. "A falling out when we were younger, I wish, I think we had a falling out when I was born. My sister and I never got along. We were always competing. We competed over silly things like, who could hold their breath underwater the longest to things like, who could find a date to some ball first. It was a nightmare with her. She was so pretty and I was the plain one. She is older than me, only by a few moths though. You'd think the way she treats our age difference though, that she thought she was years older than me. She was constantly bragging about how I apparently know a thing if she wasn't around to teach me. If she cared to teach me something and I messed it up on the first time I tried it alone, she'd just mock me about it and call me a foolish girl. My sister was and has always been an abusive witch!"
Sweeney leaned back and gritted his teeth. "Wow, it does seem like you two had some problems. Well you never know Mrs. Lovett, maybe this letter is a change. Maybe she's looking to patch things up between you two. You and I both know that things aren't as they were years ago, maybe she wants to make peace with you."
The baker looked at the man and this time it was her who raised her eyebrows. "Okay, what 'ave you done to my Mr. T? The Sweeney Todd that I know would never say that my sister wanted to patch things up. He'd never say anything about making peace with people, unless it was making pieces out of people."
Sweeney stood up. "Well I might have changed over the years, but I can slightly remember being Benjamin Barker. It was hard for Benjamin not to become friends with you at an instant. You were too enjoyable and imaginative to not want to be friends with. Maybe it just took some time for your sister to realize that, maybe she wants to start over with you pet." Mrs. Lovett stood up and nodded. Maybe the barber was right, maybe her sister just wanted to leave everything that happened between them in the past. She would never admit it to him, but after talking to Sweeney she felt a bit better about reuniting with her older sister. "Wait, one last thing. You said that you've me about her?" Nellie nodded her head and walked out of the parlor to prepare meat pies for the next day. Sweeney continued to stand there, wondering who Mrs. Lovett's sister could be. After all, there had been only a few people he'd met in London since he'd became Sweeney Todd. And he didn't think any of them were Mrs. Lovett's older sister, he remembered some things from his past, but he certainly didn't remember Mrs. Lovett having a sister.
So there it is, chapter 1 of Sister Of A Baker. I hope that you're all enjoying it so far. Yes I know I still have two other stories I'm working on, but I have come down with a common and aggravating case of WBS, otherwise known as Writers Block Syndrome. And I needed to do something to distract me and this sounded like a good distraction. So some questions that will be answered in the next chapter. 1) Who is Mrs. Lovett's sister? 2) What started this uncomfort between Nellie and her older sis? 3) Will Sweeney ever realize that his hair is really just a skunk on top of his head? (Okay, so that last one won't be answered). So again, I hope you liked chapter one. Remember to review friends.
P.S. Saw AiW at midnight REALLY late Thursday night/REALLY early Friday morning (whichever way is you preference to say it) March 5. Yes it may have just been in my local theater, but it was still the very first showing there and it was wicked! I loved it so much! I had to do something yesterday. I actually already told Sadisticalovett this very true story but I just thought I was weird for doing this, and I love to show my weirdness. So yesterday was Friday. I am home alone with my sister until 5:30pm. So my mom never knew, otherwise she'd just say she wished she'd never taken us to the movie. :( So we made vanilla ice cream, but we (safely of course) food dyed it red (to symbolize Helena the red queen of course). Then we put on chocolate syrup with the initials AIW (Alice in Wonderland). Then we put on whipped cream (to symbolize Anne the white queen of course)! YAY FOR ALICE ICE CREAM! % D-This is my maaad (hatter meaning-not angry) face. P.S.-THIS WILL NOT MAKE SENSE TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET. Johnny, you have some wicked awesome dance moves! BREAK IT DOWN JOHNNY BOY and SHOW US YOUR MAD SKILLS! EVERYBODY DANCE NOW.