Once (Gypsy Fairy Tale) Read Free

and I didn’t get to tell you at the funeral, but I just wanted to say how very sorry I am.”
    I nodded, not sure what he expected me to say and hating his sympathy. The more he talked the more real it all seemed to become.
    “I know what it’s like when someone you depend on dies,” he said with that same annoying expression of compassion. “So, if you ever need to talk to anyone, I’m here.”
    I was ashamed of myself then, so much so that I had to look away. So much it happened in my own life that I didn’t even stop to think about the people around me.
    Alec O’Connor had been the most popular boy in our graduating class and well on his way with a scholarship to IU. With his light brown hair and bright blue eyes, more than one girl lost her heart to him whether he knew it or not. Everyone expected him to go far until the car accident that summer killed his father and Alec’s dreams of college.
    Suddenly he wasn’t Mr. Touchdown anymore and everyone outside of Corydon forgot he existed all together. He suffered through surgery after surgery in hopes that his mangled leg would improve, but it never did.
    I looked up at this hometown hero with his bum leg, who was reduced to working in the feed store, and realized that I wasn’t the only one beaten up by life.
    “Thank you,” I said. “But I’m fine. Why don’t you go out to the barn and bring in some more rabbit feed?”
    “Sure,” he said with another understanding smile that annoyed me to no end. He set the broom back in the corner and hobbled out through the backroom.
    I clutched my own broom and squeezed my eyes shut, commanding myself not to cry.
    Don’t cry... Not here... Not now... You can cry tonight when you’re alone...
    I didn’t really have time to cry. The bell over the door rattled as the first customer of the day entered. I took a deep breath and forced some version of a smile on my face.
    “Good morning,” I said as I turned to greet my patron.
    I could’ve saved my energy and my enthusiasm since it was just Mrs. Allen, the middle-aged lady that owned the scrapbook store next door. She walked directly over to the fresh coffee.
    “It’s good to see you back my dear,” she said as if I’d been on a vacation instead arranging a funeral.
    For some reason, I found her attitude even more annoying than the sympathy of everyone else. If it wasn’t for Alec coming out of the back and drawing her attention, I might’ve physically thrown her out. Since Grandma was dead and gone, I didn’t see the point in pretending to like her more.
    Alec, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the way she fawned over him while he went over the different bird seeds for her backyard feeders.
    Seriously? Well, better him than me.
    One by one more customers came in with their orders for livestock feed. A few mentioned the service or gave me their awkward condolences, but they mostly talked about the circus.
    “Did you see the likes of that parade?” One farmer asked another while they waited for their orders to be filled; obviously not in too much of a hurry by the way he leaned against the counter.
    The other laughed a good ol’ boy type of chuckle, “I did. What did you think about that little firecracker?”
    “As an old man, I wouldn’t even know what to do with that.”
    I pretended not to hear them. If I was lucky, they would forget that I was right there. If not, it would just be embarrassing for all of us.
    Thankfully, they didn’t notice me and the men went on with their conversation.
    “They may all be useless tinkers,” one of them surmised. “But they sure have some beautiful women.”
    Alec stepped up to the counter with Mrs. Allen’s seed under one arm; she followed behind him like a middle-aged love-struck puppy.
    “Tinkers?” He asked as he began writing out her receipt.
    The farmer nodded, “You know gypsies and travellers.”
    “Well I know one thing,” Mrs. Allen said as she handed me her money. “You best lock things up