He still wears his apple-red suit, but it has been saturated in sugar and artificial flavorings so that it appears to be candy clothes. He holds his cane in his hand, so that he can draw the sword in case of defense. Jujy doesn’t release him from his chain and collar. She ignores him when he tells her it might look suspicious.
“Black Licorice,” Jujy announces as the candy man enters her home.
She points at Franklin. “This is Sour Apple.”
“Good to meet you, Apple,” he says in his deep bubbling voice. “I hope you are feeling better.”
Licorice steps forward and shakes Franklin’s hand.
“Yes,” Franklin says, holding the man’s hard black fingers in his soft marzipan palm.
By the way the man squeezes his hand, Franklin can tell he is making sure the hand is made of candy.
“You are from the northern cave?” he asks.
“Yes, he is,” Jujy says.
“I’m good friends with someone who recently moved here from the north cave,” Licorice says. “His name is Red Vine. Do you know him?”
“Never heard of him,” Franklin says.
“That’s funny you’ve never met given the number who live there,” he says. “How many of them are there, again? Twenty?”
“A little more,” Franklin says, putting on his best bluffing poker face.
“With such a small population, I would think that you would know everyone there. My buddy Red Vine says he knows everyone there. Perhaps you know him by his nickname, Razzleberry?”
Franklin can tell what he’s trying to do. Even without his advanced brain, he would be able to see through this game he is playing.
“Never heard of him,” Franklin says. “Are you sure he is from the north cave?”
“I am positive,” he says. “Perhaps you know each other and don’t even know it. Maybe I should introduce you. Would you like that?”
“There wouldn’t be any point,” Franklin says.
“Why not?” says the candy man.
“Because there’s no such person,” Franklin says. “I don’t see the point in meeting someone that doesn’t exist.”
Black Licorice smiles.
“You’re not as dim as Jujube,” he says. “No, you’re actually pretty smart. Almost as smart as a human.”
“Smarter,” Franklin says.
“Smarter?” Licorice laughs, and rubs Franklin’s shoulder. “I think I like you, Apple. You’ve got strength of character.”
“Thank you,” he says.
“I suspected you to be the human being who killed Float,” he says. “I see now that I was wrong.”
“Jujy told me about this,” Franklin says. “You found meat within a gum-goblin. Did it turn out to be your friend’s or a human’s?”
“Funny you should mention it,” he says. “The meat in the original gum-goblins we found was definitely from Float. But yesterday we found more gum-goblins containing meat. The meat from these turned out to be from a human. He found a human hand in one, a human leg bone in another, a collection of human skin in another.”
“Sounds like the gum-goblins got him first,” Franklin says.
“Yes, it appears so,” Licorice says.
“I think you better get going,” Jujy tells Licorice.
“But I’ve only just arrived, my love,” Licorice says.
Licorice pushes her aside to continue his man-to-man discussion with Franklin.
“So, Apple,” he says. “Now that you are all better, where will you be staying?”
Jujy bursts between the two men.
“He’s staying with me,” Jujy says.
“But it’s been three days,” Licorice says. “A male and a female cannot live together for more than three days unless they are mates.”
Jujy lifts the collar on Franklin’s neck and shakes the chain. Licorice looks at the chain as if he hadn’t realized it before. His eyes scan the length of the chain all the way into the bedroom.
“What?” Licorice’s black ball eyes curl at Jujy. “He’s your mate? You told me—”
“I told you that he wasn’t claiming me as his mate,” Jujy says. “He’s not. I’m claiming him as my mate.”
Franklin looks at her with just as surprised a face as Licorice.
“But you knew I was going to claim you as my mate,” he says. “You knew about the plans I was making for our future.”
“It’s too late,” Jujy says, a satisfied smile on her face. “I’ve already chained him to my bedpost.”
Licorice pushes Franklin out of the way and peeks into the bedroom to make sure the chain is actually connected to the bedpost. Then he punches a hole in the cookie wall.
“Females don’t claim their mates,” he says. “It is males who do the claiming.”
“My mother claimed her mate,” she says. “There is no law against it.”
“I will not allow it,” he says.
“There is nothing you can do now,” she says. “You must leave.”
“I will not allow it,” he says.
“Leave,” she says, pointing at the door.
Licorice bursts through the front door and turns back to give them both an evil glare.
“This coupling will not last,” he says. “I promise you that.”
After Licorice is gone, Jujy rubs her fingers through her pink hair and closes her eyelids. Franklin stares at the candy woman. Her eyelids are so white they look like eggshells when closed. He realizes that he isn’t afraid of her anymore. He still hates her. He still plans to kill her. But he isn’t afraid of her.
When she opens her eyes, she sees him looking at her and blushes.
“We’ll have to pretend to be mates,” she says. “It is the only way you can stay here. In our culture, men and women only share a home while mating.”
“I don’t want to be your mate,” Franklin says.
His words throw her off balance, as if she has never considered the possibility of a man not wanting her as a mate.
“You don’t have a choice,” she says. “I chose you as my mate. You don’t have a say in the matter.”
“I believe I do,” he says.
“In our culture, when you want to mate with somebody all you have to do is chain that person to your bedpost. It is usually against the person’s will. All it takes is a little cunning, some persuasion, or physical force.”
“That is why you did this to me?” Franklin says. “You wanted me to be your mate?”
“In our couplings, there is a dominant and a submissive. Females are usually the submissives, but I wanted to be a dominant like my mother was with her mate. In this cave, there are no males weak enough for me to dominate. If I did not find you Licorice would have claimed me as his mate.”
“You did this to me so that you wouldn’t have to marry Licorice?”
She cocks her head at the word marry.
“It is against the law for one to claim a mate who is already coupled,” she says. “He will not be allowed to even try to claim me as long as I have you chained to my bed.”
“So how long must I stay here?” he asks.
She dodges the question. “I’m happy that it has worked out so far. Licorice has a horrible flavor. I could not bear to mate with him. He has spent the last year building a large house for us. He wanted it to be the most luxurious house in the cave. It is being made of the most exquisite truffles, pastries, and candied pears. In the backyard, he plans to put in a dulce de leche fountain and a large gelato playground for the dozens of children he wanted me to produce.”
She scratches her fingernails along her candy cane knee when she speaks about Licorice, causing a shrilling noise in Franklin’s ear hole.
“I can’t imagine how disgusting our children would be,” she says. “I could never mate with a man like him.”
“So you would rather mate with me?” Franklin asks.