Mello clutched a crisp five dollar bill in one small hand, his other enveloped by a larger bonier one belonging to an old, wrinkly woman in a sharp grey dress suit. The four-year-old wasn't too fond of the woman, but since she had given him the paper bill he had hung tightly onto since the morning, he complied with her hand-holding requirement. He stumbled a little behind her quick stride as she led him down the cracked sidewalks.
It was the first time that Mello had been outside the grounds of the house since he got there. He had hardly seen Roger since that first day. The old woman, Jocelyn, had told him that he was too young to take the class that Roger was teaching. She taught him all the time, so Mello didn't see why Roger couldn't come out from behind the Forbidden Door once in a while. Mello had liked it much more when Roger was teaching him English than when Jocelyn was. She was so picky.
Still, the woman had given Mello his first piece of money. Mello had seen money before, sitting on the table at the old orphanage. The other kids had even convinced him to take it once, but the adults found it. After that, he had never taken the money off the table again. Now, however, Mello had been given money, been told that it was his own, that he could spend it on whatever he wanted. He could pick anything, and if the number on the sticker was less than five, he could have it. That was what Jocelyn had told him.
Jocelyn stopped at a small store whose name was a little too complicated for Mello to read. He could read the sign on the door clearly, though- "OPEN." Jocelyn pushed open the glass door, which made a jingling sound as they entered. The place was an overwhelming swirl of packages of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Mello had just barely started taking things in when Jocelyn let go of his hand.
"Go ahead, pick out what you like," she told him.
Mello hardly knew where to start. There were so many things to see, so many words to read. He paused for a moment, astounded, but soon found himself running at a shelf of what he had determined to be candy. He heard Jocelyn calling for him to slow down as she followed him, but he ignored her, too enthralled with the colorful packages wrapping sweets that were displayed before him. He picked up each type of candy one at a time to examine it, reading every word he could and checking for the price number. All of the numbers were lower than five, enough so that he could get more than one!
A glimpse of silver on the highest shelf caught the small boy's eye. He stood on his toes and reached up towards it, his outstretched fingers just barely touching the smooth foil. He managed to grip the corner and pulled, bringing down what in his hands proved to be a rectangular bar, wrapped in silver foil and brown paper. The word "Chocolate" was printed in curly white lettering across the paper. It conjured the image of a delicious smell, a brown delight waved in front of his face and then snatched away before he could taste it. Now, he could have one. He hurried over to Jocelyn and held his prize up towards her.
"Now, can you afford that?" Jocelyn tested him.
Mello looked back down at the bar. The sticker read three dot five zero, which was definitely less than five dollars. He nodded enthusiastically.
"Okay, then, let's go buy it," she said, ushering him towards the counter. "Unless there's anything else you want."
"No," Mello told her, shaking his head. He approached the counter, which was a little taller than he was.
"Go ahead. Put it on the counter," Jocelyn told him. It was hard for Mello to part from his prize and his money, but he placed them both on the counter as she said. A moment later, his faith was rewarded with the return of the chocolate bar and two more bills, along with some coins. "Put them in your pocket," she advised, and he obeyed, all of his attention on his purchase.
Mello barely noticed as Jocelyn gently pushed him out of the store. All of his attention was on carefully pulling the paper off of the bar. He made a mistake and it tore horribly. After a moment of consideration, he decided it didn't matter and stuffed the ripped wrapper into his pocket. He next focused on the foil, which he again tried to preserve but ended up tearing. It was a small price to pay for the delicious brown chocolate beneath. Mello tried to bite into it, but it was too hard, so he snapped off a piece with his teeth.
It was possibly the most delicious thing Mello had ever tasted. He didn't even notice he was back at Wammy's House until he had eaten half of the bar and Jocelyn pried it gently from his hands, telling him that it wasn't good to eat too much chocolate at once, and that he could have the rest after dinner.
That was possibly one of the longest dinners of his four-year-old life.