Loose Ends

Loose Ends

Happily-ever-afters never found their way to Amanda, Sherry, or Eli’s world.  They languished somewhere between neutral and destruction. On this particular day, the sun cast long, drawn-out afternoon rays.  Later, not unlike their lives, it would squeeze out the last of its glimmer before twilight.

Sherry shoved the groceries in her car as she looked down the street for some other place to kill time. Kill time, kill herself, kill, kill, kill she thought.  She dodged two little girls running between some outdoor cafe seats, and almost yelled at them before she realized she didn’t care enough.  

Eli ran down the street, already late for another interview.  He wondered how he always managed to screw up.  He felt eyes upon him but had no time to look around.

Amanda clutched her cell as her boyfriend explained why he should now be referred to in the past tense. He wanted to get off the phone yet she couldn’t comprehend the breakup.  The little girls were following, but she never noticed.

Eli didn’t get the job or pay this month’s rent.  Sherry didn’t kill herself, yet. Amanda walked on in a haze of denial.  The little girls skipped to the little shop, Loose Ends, where the owner stood waiting.  They whispered something to her and ran off.

Sherry shook out pills from a bottle like she was about to get a Yahtzee. They fell through her fingers, though, and found their way into the yawning cracks of the cement.  She cursed to no one and thought about how she couldn’t even do this right.  Her life was an unmanned sailboat careening onto a mountain of rocks.  She wanted to avoid the splattering. She considered scrambling on the ground, but an unidentifiable scent stole her destructive attention.

As Eli walked, he wondered about paying the rent and where his life was heading.  Last week he got rejected from the animal shelter’s adoption program.  He wasn’t even fit to rescue a rescue.  He felt like he could use a little bit of saving himself.

Amanda tripped over something, as tears flooded her vision. Eli wandered down one ruined sidewalk and then up another.  Sherry stopped in her meandering tracks.  She smelled something that she needed to know more about.  The scent drifted on fingers that tickled and tempted.  She lost all other thoughts.  

The dog he couldn’t get left his mind as Eli became entranced by a strange scent. Grandma’s warm kitchen, the first pot of fresh brewed in the morning, a puppy’s breath on your face, or the smell of crackling fire on a cold winter’s night all rolled into one could not compare to this.  It had no basis in anything he knew, and it stole all his interest.  

Amanda could not see or feel anything but followed a scent that was safe if safe could have a smell.  A smile found its way to her face, well, half of it anyway. 

Eli and Sherry found the same old sidewalk that led to the shop where an older woman stood waiting before they realized each other.  They stood there not saying a word as they looked at the woman.

“We’re waiting for one more.” was all she offered.

Amanda finally came crashing into the two other soon-to-be customers. 

“Great, you’re all here now.  Please, forgive my manners, I am Madeline.  Won’t you come into my little shop?”

After they walked through the door, the woman heard, “What”, “Who”, and an onslaught of questions. 

“Please, all in good time. I simply brought you to me, because, well, you needed me.  The vapors pulled you here. I created them from what you needed most in this world.”

They looked over to a diffuser-looking ceramic pot on an antique table.

“Now, come and sit and have some tea.  That in itself should help heal a little scar tissue built up on those bloody hearts of yours and I’ll do the rest.”

As they neared the table. They saw three place settings and steam from an old teapot already set out.  

“My tea can heal, but my words can save.”

Three hours later, the new friends emerged from the shop, laughing and chatting as they maneuvered the cracked sidewalks.  Sherry and Amanda held hands, as Eli shared his plans for a start-up. 

The little girls returned through the back door and swiped up some smears from the table and quietly helped the old woman clean up her shop.  Later, they sat and had some tea of their own.  They smiled a smile of secrets and power.  A smile born not of this world, yet very much needed.  

“Well, that went quite wonderfully as sometimes it can.  All our hard work and ability paid off on these darling little creatures.  I must say, I rather liked that guy.  I do like the brooding intense ones, can’t help myself, although, he is not quite the sullen one any more thanks to us.  I guess I’m too good for my own good.” they laughed and sipped and planned.  

“Now, who do you have in mind for our next intervention?”  The girls passed the woman a paper. 

“Oooh, I think I have the perfect vapor for the aggressive one, and perhaps something different for the introvert.  I’ll need to think a bit more about the bullied one.”

“You know I’ve been working on a new scent, one that is even stronger than any others. I’m waiting for the completion of a more extensive test, however, but if all goes well, it will be ready and will make the others look like, well, human play.  And the beauty of my potion is that you don’t need to drink it.  I enjoy being on the cutting edge.  It’s a cure for almost anything that ails you, I just need to get rid of some pesky little side effects of nausea, carpal tunnel, and death.  Of course, there can’t be witnesses dears, like the sign says, No Loose Ends.  Oh, I’m afraid the “No” is awfully faded on our little sign though.”  The three of them giggled, then drained their tea.