This is an unedited short story who knows where it will go but just wanted to share it
Hache sipped his hot java waiting for inspiration. Then he saw it and began to draw. The face looked dejected and poverty was its lot in life, yet there seemed to be an innocence which this life had not taken away. The boy may have been as young 10 or possibly even as old as 12. He was at that age where it seemed impossible to tell. His clothes were worn but not filthy and there was no smell which sometimes attended those who had no place to bath. Sympathy moved inside of Hache cause his hand to begin drawing the face he now saw.
Sympathy not something new to Hache. He was usually on the receiving end. Times had been hard and when his patron had to leave town or be lynched by the those in the village he owed, Hache was left with his little savings and his art supplies. Even now it was the sympathy of his old friend Daniel who owned the shop he was sitting in which keep a roof over his head. Daniel had told Hache that it wasn’t sympathy that he expected to be reimbursed when he found another patron, but Hache knew better.
Hache did not know if he would call Daniel a friend and certainly not family though it felt like it sometimes. They were as different as night and day, yet Daniel had always been there to look out for him. Hache had done some work for Daniel and there were a few times, but only a few, when the older man and talked if not like father and son, then like an older brother.
Hache finished his first drawing of the boy and was now started another even as his mind turned back to Daniel. Hache knew when this strange relationship started. It was the day Daniel opened this store with his young wife, Daffodil. Hache just a young man not much older than the boy now waiting in line, when Daniel walked across the street to shew Hache away. Hache had been sitting there a couple of hours staring at Daniel and Daffodil. Hache was drawing then just as he was now when Daniel grabbed his arm and pulled him up to send him on his way but stopped halfway through the pull when he saw what he had drawn. The picture was of Daniel and Daffodil looking at each other the way young married couples do.
Hache had given the picture to Daniel and thereafter Hache was allowed to draw in the pastry shop on a table near the back anytime the store was open. That had been years ago and their strange relationship, yes, Hache thought our friendship has always been strong.
Hache stared again at the young man as he started on his third sketch of the boy. The look of faint hope touched his face as he looked at the remaining pastries behind the glass display. The look quickly left as he looked down to coin he had in his hand. Hache guessed that the child did not have enough to but a single pastry.
“What would you like, young man?” Daniel said to the boy as if he were the son of the local banker.
Hache smiled because once it was the scruffy looking child of the local banker, who had taught Daniel to treat every person who came through the door as a proper customer. Hache smiled, today it seemed to be his day to go down memory lane. The child had come in on that day looking worse than this child and Daniel had thrown him out when he asked for a dozen pastries. It was only a few minutes later that the banker walked in with his son and yelled at Daniel for refusing to serve his child. Daffodil defused the situation with her beauty and charm, but Daniel learned his lesson. Since that day Hache had never seen Daniel treat anyone bagger or banker any different. Yes, some took offense that Daniel didn’t treat them better, but Hache thought Daniel’s actions had served his business well. Hache stared to think of the greatest way it had but quickly put it out of his mind, he didn’t want to think of that today.
“I want to get one for me and my brother,” the urchin said slowly, “but this is all I have.” The child held up the coin which caught the light for just a moment but then seemed nothing more than a small nearly worthless coin.
“I am sorry, young man” Daniel replied in a voice which still held respect, “but I don’t have anything you could purchase for that amount.”
The face of the child quivered as he dropped the hand which held the coin. The child’s face dropped as if to examine his shoes and he stood still for just a moment.
“Thank you” the boy muttered and turned to leave.
Daniel and Hache both watch the boy turn and slowly leave. The store was empty as the lunch rush was over.
“Wait” Hache got up and walked toward Daniel.
Daniel shook his head “On your tab, I assume. You’re too generous with my goods,” yet he picked two of the largest pasties and place them in a bag.
The urchin returned with a smile and graciously took the bag.
“I can give you this,” Holding the coin in the air to Hache.
Hache smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it for now, maybe later.”
The child stuck the coin in his pocket and raced out the door. Hache watched him turn a corner and move off down an alley. Off to meet his brother Hache assumed.
“You’re too sentimental,” Daniel said with a smile. “You do realize those would have probably been your bag tomorrow you know.”
“Speaking of which”
Daniel reached behind him and hand up the bag of day-old pastries that he saved for Hache. He knew Hache well enough to know what was going to happen. “Just because you give away your meal ticket for today, don’t assume I’m going to give you a fresh one.” Hache smiled knowing he wouldn’t but that tomorrow there would be another bag which Daniel would claim it was better to give it to him than to throw it out to the pigs.
Hache grabbed the bag and raced after the young boy. When he reached the alley he heard a voice which sounded almost familiar.
“What chumps. I told you my luck wouldn’t run out. We’ll take their generosity during the day and steal them blind at night just like we did in the last town.” Then there was a laugh which joined the laugh of the person who spoke.
Hache turned the corner and saw two young men with their back to him beginning to eat. Hache immediately recognized the speaker and was shocked. Hearing the voice now and seeing him from the back Hache didn’t know how he could have thought of this man as anything but the twenty, maybe even thirty years old he was.
The man held up a coin Hache recognized. “Only use it twenty times the old man said, you’ll lose far more on twenty-one.” The two laughed.
Hache walked up behind the men, took the coin, and quickly stepped back.
The two spun around and looked at Hache with undisguised anger.
“You offered this to me, so I’ll take it.” Then he threw the bag of pastries at the pair.
The second man grabbed the bag and wasted no time looking inside. Hache saw now the child-like face of the man/boy but now saw that he was not a young man but a man cursed with dwarfism. How had he missed it before?
Hache had been tricked, his generosity taken advantage of, but that was nothing compared to the plans of these two thieves. As what they want to do sunk deeper into Hache’s mind he grew angry, then a plan blossomed in his mind.
Hache smiled. “Leave town now. You won’t find any more generosity here.” Then he turned and left. There were a group of sketches sitting on the table of the pastry shop that he wanted to show to the local market owners and the constable.
“Yes, you have lost far more,” Hache said as he flipped the coin in the air and placed it in his pocket.
