Why Lucy?
Part One
I just stood there in this barbershop. I tried to look around but my eyes kept going to this object: a grown up man, but as weak as a child. Never had I seen this man so fragile. I remembered him as a self-confident human being; certain about what life was going to give him.
Nellie Lovett was not around at the moment. Probably she was at the market with Tobias Ragg; being social and secretly making advertisements for Lovett's Pie shop. I'd seen the two walking away, just before I was planning to climb the stairs to Sweeney's barber's shop. I felt like a spy, because I had promised to him that I kept avoiding Lovett in times of visits.
'She could think things…' his lips had said. Things I would like to happen, my heart screamed, but not loud enough to make any sound. I kept silence…
At the moment I came in, he just stood there: cleaning one of his razors. I could only see his back, but that was soon to be different. He turned his head to me and smiled. The smile on his lips was pure but his eyes told me another story. They were red, like he had been crying. The great Sweeney Todd had left a tear; I couldn't believe it.
'You're here.' He walked to me and laid one of his hands on my shoulder. 'Lovett didn't see you?' And again he smiled, but still something sad covered his face.
One moment I was afraid. I knew what happened with most of his costumers. Did he change his mind? Did he think that I knew too much about what he had told me? Again I looked at him: No.
'What's wrong?' I asked, looking in his eyes. His eyes looked back but quickly after connecting, we lost contact again. He sat down on the Pirelli's box and looked at the ground. 'Nothing.' he said with his raw voice.
I saw how his chin started to move very quickly, like he had to sneeze or had to cry again. And I just stood there in this barbershop.
After the first teardrop hit the dusty wood of his shop, he thought I didn't notice. He kept telling me there was nothing to worry about. But it was easy to see that there WAS something going on.
A few minutes later he finally had the guts to look at me. His eyes were covered with tears. He looked at me like a helpless child.
'Why did she die?' I guessed he was talking about his former wife Lucy. Lovett told me about her after I had laid my eye on the new barber. She told me to back off and wait till his imaginary tears were gone by the heat of a new sun. Well, she didn't mention the names Lucy or Barker, because she didn't know that I was soon to find out.
'I don't know, Benjamin.' I sat down on the same box and grabbed his hand. Softly I chucked the palm of his hand with my thumb, discovering the lines of his future, but unable to read them. 'I don't know.'
His face was turned to the ground again. 'I miss her.' He mumbled. He looked up with his teary eyes and freed his hand from this caress. What happened next was like a dream.
His arms embraced my small body. His head leaned on my shoulder. And he started to cry with heartbreaking sounds. I chucked his back to let him know it was okay to free this pain.
And I knew that this was the closest that anyone ever had managed to get to him since Benjamin Barker died in jail.
Subscribe to read part 2 soon!