Butterflies (boyxboy)

Chapter 2: Mural

"What are you looking at?"

☆

It's Sunday morning and Tamesh is crossing the fairly quiet street towards 'The candy cabin'. He curses a little under his breath as the wheels of his pull along cart, laden with paint pots, cloths and brushes, get caught in the uneven cobbled street. He yanks the vessel up the raised kerb, towards a smiling Alfie, seemingly amused by Tamesh's struggles. 

"Thanks for this." Alfie smiles as he heads back into the sweet smelling store, followed by Tamesh pulling his cumbersome load. He rests the wheeled cart next to the ready to paint window. "Tea?" Alfie offers, with Tamesh nodding only half focusing on the question, with the other half of his mind sizing up the glass pane in front of him. 

He takes his sketchpad from the cart and flicks through until he reaches the pages where his ideas for the mural were drawn. Soon Alfie returns with some tea, Tamesh takes it from him, taking a sip, setting it down on the window sill before refocusing again on his sketch pad.

He leans a little closer to Alfie so he can see the potential designs. "So, I've created a few ideas...." Tamesh begins to explain his thought processes, getting very animated with his hand, making Alfie grin a little at the passion his friend had. "...So that's my thoughts. I'll leave it to you to decide. You have until I've drank my tea." He takes another slurp of the hot beverage, while Alfie now takes the sketch book in both hands to ponder on his options.

Alfie rubs his fingers across his mouth back and forth, emitting a "mmmm" in thought. "You know, I like both, but the purple in this one looks really eye-catching. So...this design please." Alfie slaps his forefinger on the chosen sketch, before looking up at Tamesh who was nodding in approval. 

"Ok, I'll get to work...might be able to get it done in a day." He adds.

***

A couple of hours fly by and Tamesh is well into creating the new mural on the shop window. It had been a while since he had worked on a large scale like this. Maybe this was another option to add to his people drawing idea...big art.

Tamesh wasn't surprised that no one had asked him about the modest advertisement placed on the door a few days ago, but he thought he would have had at least some interest.

"Here!" He is suddenly distracted by a plate with chocolate balls precariously rolling around on it, with Alfie offering the treat.

"What are these?" Tamesh asks, popping his paintbrush into one of the pots. 

"My new offering. I call them "crazy cocoa!,' these are green tea." He offers the plate up a little closer to Tamesh, who looks warily at the little chocolate spheres, before picking one up and biting into it. Alfie looks at him intensely, trying to work out the unreadable expression on his face. "Well...what do you think?" 

"Mmm!" Tamesh nods in approval, popping the rest of the chocolate in his mouth. "Different, but nice." 

Alfie beams a smile as he too chooses to take a chocolate from the plate to eat. He looks at the developing artwork on the window. "Tam, this looks so good. Thank you so much for doing this." 

Tamesh stands back a little from the window, casting his self critical eye over it. "I should be done by the end of the day." He comments.

Alfie pats Tamesh's shoulder in appreciation, before leaving the plate of chocolate to rest on the window sill and heading out the back again. 

Tamesh looks down and picks up the plate, testing a few more chocolates as he pops them into his mouth. He again looks at his work so far, but then something, or someone else catches his eye. 

Through Alfie's shop window, he can see his gallery shop, and standing outside, peering through the glass was a figure. Tamesh couldn't see the person that well, but it looked like a male. He was wearing a white baseball hat, patches of near black hair sticking out around the sides. He had on a long black coat and tight black jeans, with big black boots on his feet. 

He watches as the guy paces a little in front of the shop, looking up and down the street, a little lost, before again, deciding to peer through the glass.

He wonders whether he should go out, cross the street and point out the obvious closed sign on the shop front, but finds the amusement of the guy pacing back and forth, repeating the same actions again and again, rather entertaining to watch. He finally seems to give up and head down the street, not to return. 

"What are you looking at?" Alfie questions, with yet another plate of chocolate balls, ready for Tamesh to sample. He looks at where his artist friend is looking, noticing the guy with the baseball hat, walking rather swiftly down the street. 

"That man." Tamesh replies, the amusement still evident in his voice. 

"Why? What has he done?" Alfie now looks sideways at Tamesh, still watching the guy, who was by now, a mere dot in the distance. 

"Ah nothing, I was just watching him trying to get into my closed shop." 

Alfie now puts his plate down in a panic. "What? Was he trying to break in?" Do you think he's a thief? Was he acting suspiciously?" 

Tamesh's amused smile soon drops to one of equal panic, realising that this was exactly how the guy was acting. "Shit! Yeah he was!" Recalling the way the guy looked around as if to check if people were watching him. 

"I've told you over a hundred times to get better security in your place! It's not just your shop, it's your workspace, your home. You know I've been telling you that you shouldn't live alone.You know how forgetful you are!" Alfie now begins to sound fretful, which isn't helping Tamesh's changing mood from one of calm to one of anxiety.

"Well, he obviously didn't get inside and he's gone now." He says, trying to reassure himself and Alfie at the same time.

"Yeah, well, just try and sort out your security." Alfie says, offering over the fresh plate of chocs. He lets Tamesh pop one into his mouth before saying the flavour. "Soy sauce."

The said chocolate gets spat across the shop.