Ninja as Child - #12 - Licorice

I've always liked black licorice, but it might be attributable to a particular babysitter on whom I had a little crush.

"Here. Pretend it's just your gum." I'm not supposed to have any candy aside from my gum but she hands me the little black licorice chew and I swap my gum for the molasses masterpiece, rolling it around with my tongue, squishing it against the roof of my mouth, all the while miming the jaw marching rhythm of chewing gum. We hide under the cheap apartment complex stairway and tell stories about what the world will be like when we are older. I tell her my dream of flying one day.

"No wings or anything. I'm just going to jump into the air and it'll be like a vacuum roller coaster, sucking me up and twirling me around...but I'll control it. I'll get everywhere that way." She giggles at my naive charm.

Of course she was much older than I was, probably by four or five years. But she was way cooler than the bible thumping granny that my mom fired last week.

The old lady had whipped out a graphic novel version of Sodom and Gomorrah as soon as my mother left the apartment. I followed along in the pages, marveling at the gore and horror within. My brother realized this was not what our mother would have wanted and when she got home and heard what happened, our mom was furious. The wretched old lady is out. The hot young girl is in.

hmmm... got a lot more to say on the subject of black licorice... and cute girls... but running out of evening hours... to be continued...