The Tiffany Box- ONC 2021 Shortlister

19- Black Coffee and Tea

Ash looked into her coffee. She once heard Clara Abernathy say that anyone who drank their coffee black was insane. Ash began drinking coffee at the age of nine. She never put any sugar or creamer inside it. Taking a sip she thought Maybe Clara was right.

The coffee shop had a distinct caramel and vanilla scent to it. Even in the washroom. There was something about the smell of anything too sweet that made Ashlyn want to gag so she bought her drink and sat on the sidewalk with it. Next to her was her whole life in two backpacks. She'd left the motel an hour ago having no more money left. Looking around she wondered if she'd fit comfortably in a cardboard box for her new home.

Scrubbing her palm over her knee, she thought to the dream she had just before waking up. Her white-haired, blue-eyed ghost came to haunt her again and once again he was tending to a black kitten with the most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen. Robin egg blue. Otherwise known to the rich as Tiffany Blue. Ash took a sip of her coffee and wondered if she should have bought tea instead. She'd been feeling feverish these last few hours and assumed she was coming down with a cold. Perfect timing. Just when I am homeless. For a moment, Ash pondered peddling her wears on the street but she thought that her lack of a chest and the fact that she bit better than she sucked would probably make her prostitute carer end in five minutes.

When she saw the teenager walk past her, a rogue wind blowing dark hair over smoldering gray eyes, Ash nearly dropped her coffee. Cute! She thought as she gave him a smile and put her thoughts of selling herself out of her mind. Lifting her hand, Ash twiddled her fingers at the teen and giggled when he gave her a shy wave back. But it wasn't until she spotted the star tattoo peeking out from under his hair that she bolted up, dropping her coffee as she grabbed her backpacks, and ran after him. "Hey, excuse me! I'm sellin'."

Eli turned sharply. Though the streets were empty, there was an unwritten law about advertising if you were buying or selling dreams. Giving her a shocked look, his first instinct was to shush her but the sudden rush of euphoria he got in her presence was beautiful. The fact that she was indeed a dreamer, and a powerful one, clawed at Eli like a pet puppy demanding attention.

"I'm sorry," Ash said in a stage-whisper. Pointing to his ear, she spoke softer, "I'm selling. Please, please tell me you're buying because I've got no cash and I'm seriously pondering having to turn tricks. Look at me," Ash gestured to her skinny frame. "I'd maybe make like what... a dime?"

"Are you insane?" Eli whispered back as he looked around to make sure no one had suddenly appeared. Los Demonios was a tomb even though it was only eleven AM. "You're not supposed to blurt stuff like that out." But as he spoke his brain throbbed giddily. He could almost taste her memories.

"Well, maybe a bit." Ash shrugged. "But I've got something no one else will ever, ever offer you." Hoping to keep him interested, she told him about her secret. "I've not got ordinary dreams. I've got other people's dreams." She tapped her temple. "I see stuff others did. I see stuff others wish they had dreamed. I'm like a –"

"Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Eli said wondering just how many Sellers found people dreaming others dreams, not their own fuzzy thoughts but stuff buyers coveted.

"If you're going to go all cliché, yah."

Eli felt as if Christmas had come early. Not only had he found an amazing man who he cared for, not only had he just had the sweetest sex ever, but a Dream Seller's ultimate dreamer was standing a few feet away. "I've got twenty dollars," Eli said biting his lip. He was sure there was no way anyone carrying others' dreams would be cheap, but he'd beg her if he had to.

"I'll make you a deal. I'm currently homeless. Used up the last of my cash like I said and need a place to crash...just until I find Him."

Eli scrunched his brow. "I'm staying with a friend so it's not my place."

"Look, I'm desperate," Ashlyn pleaded. She wasn't one to fear strangers, not after living with a man like her pedo father or the assorted nuts in the asylum. "I'll let you collect dreams from me every day for free as long as you let me stay. I have to stay here till I find Him."

Eli looked at the desperation on her face. "Who you looking for, a friend of yours?"

Ash shook her dark hair. "God. I'm looking for God."

Eli chuckled. "You are nuts." He thought she was a bit loopy but was drawn to her. He knew letting her go would be a mistake. "I can't harvest every day, you'd get nosebleeds –"

"I don't mind," she interrupted.

"You'd die."

"Oh, well that would be bad."

Eli nodded.

"I'll give you a dream now. Free. And if your client...uh...punter...whatever they're called, is thrilled, you let me stay with you and your friend for a day, deal?"

Eli thought it would do no harm. He agreed and they moved to a secluded area behind an abandoned building.

When the blue box was opened, Ash looked at the lid. She noticed the scruffy edges and the faded letters and thought about her own Tiffany Box in her bag. She was about to tell Eli about it when he spoke. "I want you to keep still. Close your eyes and find a dream. It often takes a while to get one in your head and extracted, at least twenty minutes."

"I dream quick," Ash said as she closed her eyes.

"Well, if you do it in under twenty, it's a first."

"Do I win a prize if I do that?"

Eli shook his head at her silliness and smiled. "What's your name anyway?"

"Ashlyn. People call me Ash."

"I'm Eli," he said as he touched the button to her temple. "And I say it's time to hush and dream."

"You didn't say Simon says."

Though he tried not to, Eli burst out laughing. "Shut up, Ash and dream...Simon says."

Ash sat on the steps of an abandoned building, a new beverage in her hand – tea, courtesy of Eli who thought her flushed cheeks were from the extract when it was really her fever getting worse. Eli had been gone for nearly an hour and she wondered how long it took people to find a buyer. Little did she know, around the corner, Eli's good luck had turned sour.

"What do you mean you're not paying?" Eli glared at the man. "This was the best out there."

The man shrugged, a smug smile on his lips. "Primo. I've never had a dream that felt so vivid and so like my own, but tough luck, kid. Maybe you should ask for money upfront, yah?" The balding man fitted his cap over his head and arrogantly pointed a finger at Eli. "You kids think you can sell and people will like you. Well, we still don't." The man turned to walk away.

"Look here you creep," Eli called after the man. "Give me my damn money."

When the man turned back, he marched to Eli and shoved him. "Or what?"

Eli hesitated, he knew he couldn't pull out his knife. But before he could think of a plan of action, the man shoved him again, hard enough to send Eli toppling over a pile of discarded boxes.

Laughing, the man gave Eli the finger and snorted, "Dirty rotten seller."

"Motherfucker," came a newly familiar voice. Brushing his hair angrily from his face, Eli saw Ashlyn standing a few feet away, her hands behind her back. "Pay him you piece of shit."

The man guffawed at Ash and adjusted his cap. "And who's going to make me? You, little girl? How about you step to the side before I end up hurting you."

But Ash would not budge. "Last chance."

Rising, Eli felt an ache from the fall. He was sick to death of assholes like his man.

"Fuck you, girlie," said the bald man.

Without another warning, Ash held up her hands at chest level. In one hand was a spray can, in other a silver Zippo. Before Eli could blink, he saw a flame burst forth like an angry dragon's and spread over the man's clothing.

The sound of howling filled every space around Eli. When Ash told him to run, he did. Both of them fled from the scene getting further and further away from the screams of agony.

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