No. 6

CHAPTER 4 - The Angel Of The Netherworld

I love him, love him. He's a millstone round my neck - he'll take me to the bottom with him. But I love this millstone of mine - I can't live without it.
-Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard" Act III

***

The girl came just as Karan was about to close the blinds of the store.

"Ma'am, are there any muffins left?" She was an adorable child with a round face, probably not yet ten.

"We're all out of cheese, but if you like raisin muffins, we've got one of those left."

"I'll have it, please."

"Alright, Lili. Just a second." Karan picked the leftover muffin off the tray, and put it in a bag with two doughnuts.

"The doughnuts are a little something extra."

"Thank you, Ma'am." Lili dropped a few copper coins into Karan's hand. She had probably held them tightly in her hand her whole way here, for although no blood coursed through the coins, they held the warmth of a human body.

Lili peeked inside the bag, and her face glowed as she observed aloud that there were two whole doughnuts inside.

"You're one of my regular customers after all, Lili. Next time, I'll bake some extra cheese muffins for you."

"Ma'am, you won't quit running this store, will you?" Lili raised her face from the bag, and questioned Karan with a sombre expression.

"I would never. Why would you think so?"

"Mama said that you might close your store. But I'm glad you're not." A relieved grin spread across her round face. Karan squatted down and wrapped her arms around the girl's small frame.

"Thank you for worrying about me, Lili."

Her soft body, her warm presence― she was so small, yet she provided Karan with definite encouragement.

"Mama and Papa were both worried," Lili said. "They were saying, 'what if we can't eat the bread or cakes from your bakery again?'. Because you know, the cake shop in front of the station is bad-tasting, and expensive, and mean," she said huffily.

"Are they?"

"Yeah. Because the other day, there was a huge white cake on display, and it was like a toy castle. And me and Ei― oh, do you know who Ei is?"

"No, I don't."

"He's my friend. He's really good at blowing bubbles. So Ei and me were looking at it together, because it was so pretty."

"So you two were looking into the shop window?"

"Yeah. And the old man in the store started yelling at us. He said, don't touch the glass with your dirty hands. We were just looking. We weren't even touching the glass," Lili said indignantly.

"That's awful."

"So Ei yelled at him back, and said 'you stupid stingy old man!' and so I yelled at him too, and said 'you stupid bald old man!'. And then we both ran away."

Karan found herself bursting into laughter. It had been a while since she had laughed out loud. She kissed Lili on the cheek.

"I can't make anything as big as a castle, but for your birthday, Lili, I'll bake a nice, all-white cake for you."

"Really?"

"Really. Make sure you share with Ei, too."

"Thank you, Ma'am," said Lili happily. "I like cherry cake."