Life is crazy and so am I! As I bang my head with a fury rarely seen against my over inflated ego, I must ask for your sweet forgiveness for not adding a post in a long time. So here it is Part 6 of the story of Sweet Lilly. Enjoy!
Mr. Sugars remembered how for years after Ben’s disappearance, Janet walked though her days in a daze. Mr. Sugars, now knowing Janet so well, knew that even at that young age she had planned out her whole life. It was apparent to Mr. Sugars that a huge part of Janet’s planned life had included her being married to Benjamin Packard. With Big Dumb Ben’s mysterious disappearance Janet’s dream life had come crashing down around her. It wasn’t for over ten years until she accepted that Ben was never coming back. It was at that time, after Janet had taken inventory of all the available men of Liberty that she settled to be Mrs. Sugars.
When all was said in done Mr. Sugars didn’t know what hit him. Not three months after Janet asked him out on their first date, they were married and the Philips family had given him the building he was now standing in and a huge chunk of start up money to do whatever he wished. Helen’s father stopped talking to Mr. Sugar’s upon hearing that his son-in-law was taking the hard earned cash he had given the young man to open a candy store. Janet didn’t take the news well either.
Mr. Sugars seeing Lilly did not see Ms. Bates, who was bending down to grab a handful of butterscotch candies, tried to prevent the collision by saying “Watch out there Lilly!” Mr. Sugars warning only made things worse. Ms. Bates wheeling around to see what all the commotion was smacked right in to the boxes Lilly was holding. This sent not only Lilly’s boxes for Jefferson City flying but also sent the bag of Glass horses that Ms. Bates was bringing to the Toy store which was owned Mr. and Mrs. Pearl. All Mr. Sugars saw was flailing arms, flying horses, Butterscotch candy and properly labeled boxes flying every which way. The crash was thunderous. Even though the glass horses were rapped in tissue paper, when they hit the floor, they shattered in to thousands of pieces, sending glass shards everywhere. Ms. Bates ended up on her back with her long hair completely covering her eyes. Lilly was completely covered in the boxes. With flurry Mr. Sugars ran around the counter, help Ms. Bates up and started to remove the boxes that cover Lilly. Ms. Bates followed Mr. Sugars lead trying to extract Lilly from the bottom of the pile.
As Ms. Bates picked up the boxes revealing a no worse for wear Lilly she began to laugh. Mr. Sugars and Lilly befuddled by the laugh look up at Ms. Bates. Ms. Bates seeing the wonderment on their faces showed both Mr. Sugars and Lilly the box that she had just picked up which was labeled and taped shut and said “The ten year old is smart enough to pack her goods in boxes and tape them shut! And what do I do? I just wrap my delicate glass figurines in tissue paper and put them in a bag.” Ms. Bates in fits of laughter continued, “I need to have my head checked.” Lilly seeing the shattered glass stopped stacking the dropped boxes, picked up a broken horse head with one hand and put her other hand to her mouth as she said “Oh, Ms. Bates! Your beautiful glass horses… I am so sorry! Can you forgive me?” Ms. Bates stacking Lilly’s boxes looked directly into Lilly’s eyes and said, “You don’t need to apologize. It was an accident. I bowled you over, right?” Lilly quickly looked away from Ms. Bates’ stare, scanned the room until her eyes found Mr. Sugars broom next to the door. Lilly started to move towards the broom and said “Let me clean this up.” Mr. Sugars stopped Lilly and said “Don’t you even think about! I will get to that later.” Mr. Sugars was pointing to the mess as he noticed Ms. Bates sifting though the broken glass. Ms. Bates seeing that both Lilly and Mr. Sugars were staring at her tried to explain her manic search, “I had created a special silver and glass horse for Mrs. Pearl. I spend so much time on it. I just wanted to look at it, even if it was just pieces. I can’t seem to find any of it. It must have shattered really good.”
