Candy Corn, Holiday Markets, More Free Books, and Part III of "The Artist"

Oct 14, 2024 5:01 pm

Candy Corn Nostalgia

Halloween brings out a certain melancholy for me because that's when candy corn hits the market. It's not that I'm particularly fond of it. I find it a little too sweet. Read the ingredients. It's three kinds of sugar. That's it. It's sugar, honey, and corn syrup. Plus, some coloring to make the three stripes and a little oil. I do like the chocolate ones a little better. After all, chocolate.

But it makes me remember my father. He LOVED candy corn. These days, you don't find the small, individual packets of candy corn they used to hand out to trick-or-treaters, but I remember them. When we would return home after going door to door on Halloween, my brother, sister, and I would dump out our loot and sort them - chocolate in one pile, non-chocolate in another, and those we truly had no interest in. Candy corn usually went in my third category. That's when my father would appear. "Did you get any candy corn?" he'd ask, peeking over our shoulders. As far as I was concerned, he could have all of mine.

He passed more than 15 years ago, but I can't see a bag of them without thinking of him.

What about you? Is there something this time of year brings back a memory - good, bad, or bitter-sweet - to you? It might not be candy or even food. Maybe a scent or scene? I wish all of you a safe and happy Halloween.

Need Some Holiday Gift Ideas?

As we move past Halloween, the holidays loom around the corner!

After last year's great time at Hebron High School Holiday Market, I decided to have a booth at several different markets in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Each weekend from October 26 - December 7, I will have a booth at a different market. I'll have books to purchase (which I will sign) and swag to give away. You can also drop by just to chat if you want. There will be lots of vendors with lots of different gift ideas.

Come by to any or all of these events:

October 26 – Lewisville High School

November 2 and 3 – Southlake/Carroll High School

November 10 – Coppell High School

November 16 – Wylie East High School

November 23 – Sachse High School

December 7 – Hebron High School

Book Giveaways

Almost 40 books available for free download. These include activity pages, coloring books, and journals, as well as short stories and novels for young and older children. You can get them all here.

More than 15 books for older readers that will send a chill (or a giggle) down their spines. All free to download. Get your copies here.

The Next Part of "The Artist" by Carmen Amato

Part I and II recap: Emilia Cruz, a female detective in the Acapulco police department, and her partner Rico Portillo have been assigned to investigate a threat left by an Acapulco gang at a local school. The narcomanta banner threatens to kill a teacher a week unless half their salaries are turned over to the gang. The two propose going undercover at the school to see if they can catch whoever is terrorizing the school. Rico will be working as the custodian as a way of watching out for any suspicious characters around the school. Emilia will be the art teacher. In her classes, she learns that students have already lost family to the narcos.

To learn more about Carmen's works, you can visit her Website here.

The Artist

Part III

Rico found the second narcomanta the next morning. Like the first, it had been hung on the school gates. He’d arrived just after 6:00 am to open the school, which meant swinging wide the iron portal so that the teachers could park inside the walls, and then relocking the gates once the children had arrived. Vice Principal Medina usually had that responsibility but had ceded it to Rico for the week. Señora Toledo always locked the gates at night as she was invariably the last to leave.

The wording of this narcomanta was almost identical to the other, except that the threat was doubled. Now the school could expect that two teachers would be killed each week. Like before, however, there were no instructions for passing the money to the gang.

The Los Esgrimidores logo was the same elaborate crest and the lettering was again red and black. The message had been printed on a heavy sheet of white posterboard, however, instead of waterproof fabric.

Like he had on Monday and Tuesday, Rico spent most of the day walking around the school, pretending to pull weeds from around the base of the outer walls. He identified two probable halcones; a nervous teen who worked at the fruit and vegetable stand on the next block, and a taxi driver who’d cruised by the school three times with an empty cab and a cell phone pressed to his ear.

When the two detectives met late on Wednesday with the school administrators, Medina was twitching with nerves and had a smudge of red ink on one shirt cuff. His hands trembled and Emilia imagined he had a difficult time holding his pen these days.

But again Señora Toledo refused to be intimidated. She did, however, accept Emilia’s suggestions that they vary the school schedule and put a few of the more frightened teachers on administrative leave. She and Medina would work up a new schedule and notify parents in time for it to go into effect next week. But they would not close the school.

“I’ve phoned in the placa number for the taxi,” Rico said to Emilia when they were alone in the teacher’s lounge after the brief and tense meeting with the two administrators.

Señora Toledo and Medina were probably continuing their argument in the principal’s office, Emilia thought. “Did you call Perez in Organized Crime?” she asked.

Rico nodded. “With any luck they’ll pick up both the kid in the store and the taxi driver in a day or so.”

“What about fingerprints on the narcomantas?” Emilia asked, although she already knew the answer. “Did the lab find anything?”

“Oye, chica.” Rico shook his head. “You’re the queen of optimism.”

They agreed that they couldn’t rule out older students funneling information to gang members outside the school. Gang infiltration was a big problem for many of the schools in Acapulco, where for a few pesos, kids would provide information on teachers, the layout of the school office, and other details that could be used to rob faculty and facilities. So far Emilia hadn’t seen any suspicious behavior. She’d have to redouble her efforts to find out what the kids knew. She’d also continue to ask the teachers questions.

Emilia went back to her classroom and swept the floor and tidied the art supply cabinet. She’d left it unlocked and the kids had knocked over the plastic bottles of paint and left the piles of art paper askew. They needed more paint but Emilia hardly felt like asking the principal for money for art supplies. The children would just have to make do with colored pencils.

She made a sign to go over the portrait gallery in the hall. A ceremony was planned for Friday, the last day that the detectives would be at Lomas Hermosas. Señora Toledo would view the gallery and award the little prizes Emilia had bought.

“Nice job, chica,” Rico said as he came into the room. “Hidden talent and all that shit.”

“Did I mention that blue really suits you?” Emilia replied. Rico still had on the blue coveralls that all workmen wore. The elastic waist was stretched flat by his girth.

“Of course it does,” Rico said expansively. “I’m a handsome fucker.”

They left together, driving through the gates just ahead of Señora Toledo who pulled to the curb. As they waited, she got out of her car in her suit and battered cross trainers, and locked the gates. She waved goodbye, returned to her car, and turned left towards home.

To be continued.....