Queen Anne Cordials

The small grimy hand shot out of the tattered camouflage sleeve and into the crate of festively colored pistachio nuts.
"Hey. Knock it off. Your going to get yourself in trouble", the man told the girl sternly.
She looked at him and grinned vaguely. The back of her neck was beginning to sweat. She had been cold to the bone the entire day, but now she wiped away the drops of perspiration below her greesy hair line with a dirty glove.
"Hurry up, we have to get home and start supper."
He had found her, standing idle, starring at the ribbon candy. She followed him at a distance, trying to keep up with his long stride. Her legs were tired water, her big boots stone. The girl caught up with the man at the meat counter, were she paused and rested against the plastic parsley lined cooler and let the cold air blow up her back.
"They WILL hand you over to the police, if you keep that up", he warned her again, as she ate from the clear open bag in their cart, when he was done selecting the bargain hamburger.
"mm not doing...", but she could not finish the sentience. Her mouth was full, even though she knew better, and she just did not have the energy to finish her sentience.
"You're no thief", he told her as he tried wiping the red food coloring from the nut shells off her face with his spitty fingers. "If you are dumb enough not to wipe the evidence off your face, I'll let them keep you in back till they decide what jail to throw you in." She just smiled at him, wanting him to continue rubbing her face so she could rest longer.
"That's enough now. Behave. We have to get home and take care of the animals."
She wanted to leave the store right then, as hungry as she was. But she knew she would never find her way back to his truck parked in the dark snowy parking lot. And she hadn't the energy to explain why. So she clumped along behind him, trying her best to unbutton the heavy hand me down army jacket as she walked. The sweat was now pouring down her back between her shoulder blades and causing her woolen long johns to itch.
The man turned a corner with the cart and she lost him. So she sat down on a large bag of dry dog food and waited. The piped in Christmas music was too loud, and the words did not make sense. They sounded failure but not quite right, almost as if they were being sung in a different language. She sat and tried to concentrate on the words, thinking maybe if she thought hard enough, the words would come right.. She rubbed the sore spot on her forehead, where her hardhat had chaffed her skin when her boot slipped off the bottom bag of dog food she was sitting on and ripped a small hole. A dry puddle of dog foot piled by her foot. She bent over to pick it up in her clammy hand.
"Come. One." He had found her. Or at least she thought it might be him. He shoved his big hand under her damp arm pit and helped her up. She looked at him and saw two of his angry faces scowling back at her. With one hand she grabbed onto the side of the cart to steady herself and shoved the dog food into her mouth with the other.
"What did I tell you? Are you eating the pistachios?", he asked her. She shook her head no, letting them dissolve slowly in her mouth. She closed both her eyes. All the lights and confusion of the bulk grocery store was overstimulating for her. The metal of the grocery cart was cool beneath her hand. She let it guide her, as she shuffled along side it, moving when it did, trying her best not to crunch as she chewed.
"Where is your coat?", she heard the voice ask repeatedly. She didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't know who's voice was so insistent. She didn't know where she was. "Wait here", she might have heard drifting away from her.
She opened her eyes and found herself slumped in the front seat of her boyfriends truck, her face prompt against the windows frosty glass. The multicolored lights on the tree in front of the store were all blurred together. She was shivering again, her clothes all wet and clammy. She needed to pee, and to spit the cloying sweet taste from her mouth, but she could not yet pull herself upright and dig the blueprints out of the small of her back.
He had seen her open her eyes. "You ok now?", he asked, fear had replaced the anger. She turned her head, surprised to see him sitting next to her. She closed her eyes again and nodded.
"What happened in there?", he asked.
She wanted to answer but her mouth could not form a coherent word, even if she had a viable reason.
"I'm going back in, and pay for our groceries," he said a while later. "We will be late on the construction site this morning", she replied when her blood sugar was high enough for her to speak clearly.
"It is night, not morning", he told her tersely before walking away through the snow towards the electronic doors. She sat up straight and watched him go, glad to be going home where she would crawl straight into bed after her shower. Tomorrow would start another twelve hour day as a construction laborer.
She was drinking the bottom residue from their coffee thermos as he loaded the bags into the bed of the truck.
He pushed the torn holiday paper aside and dropped a case of diet Pepsi on the floor of the truck so she could lean against him on their long ride home.
"What happened back in there?", he asked her again.
"I don't know," she told him, "My blood sugar just dropped. You must be working me two hard."
"I left you by our cart in the check out line to get your coat off the dog food display. I knew something was wrong with you. When I came back, you were sitting in the pop cooler. You fought me as I pulled out. It was embarrassing."
"I'm sorry", she said as he rested her head against his shoulder. Their unknown babies in her stomach danced with all the sugar they had just been fed. Their little pancreases already producing extra insulin sporadically, mischievously.
"I hope you realize you just ate your Christmas present. I can't afford anymore."
The little mother looked at the empty box of chocolate covered cherries that had been wrapped so lovingly.

She has received a box every year she has been with him. She loves the candy. She just can't bring herself to eat it.