Ma was making her apple pies and I suppose we were underfoot because she took an exasperated swing at us with her rolling pin and sent us scurrying outside. There were seven of us at that time, and I was the second oldest, seeing as the fever hadn’t take Sarah yet. “Ruth”, she called, before I was out the kitchen door. “Run to the general store and fetch me some more flour.”
“Can I take Zeke along with me?”
“No, you cannot.”
Ma wasn’t real attached to any of us, but at least she wasn’t risking two of us at once, which I admire, seeing as I’d have sent us all and been done with it, had I been in her place. So off I went with only my dolly for a companion, down the wood plank walkway that stretched from my house to the General Store and beyond.
“There’s a stranger talking to the sheriff over by the saloon,” I offered in the way of gossip to the shopkeeper when I arrived. He glanced out the window, nodded, and gave me my choice of penny candy as he filled Ma’s order. My eyes lit on the round ones between the licorice whips and taffy.
“How do they make those look so much like eyeballs?” I asked.
“One question per customer.” The shopkeeper wore that stern expression that Pa had when you’d left the barn door open at night.
“Right or left?”
He sighed. “Just zigzag.” In spite of everyone suspecting where the source of the eyeballs was, the shopkeeper was a kind man.
“Licorice please”.
And I clutched my dolly and Ma’s supplies close to me as I ran towards home, zigzagging the dusty street to avoid the not so sudden gunfire.