THE HOME MADE TOFFEE - BY ANTHONY HEDGER - *Published*

THE HOME MADE TOFFEE

It was late in the evening when Jane Marks had to go downstairs to make an important phone call. She fumbled around in the darkened room for her dressing gown with just the glow from a full moon shining through her window. She banged her foot on the leg of the bed then tripped over something on the floor which sent her flying through the bedroom door and tumbling down the stairs.
“Damn that!” She shouted, dazed from the fall as she came to an abrupt halt on the last step. She groped around for the telephone knocking it from the table where it always stood. She cursed again and crawled around on all fours before finding it. On her first try she tapped out the wrong number. “Think Jane, think!” She said to herself trying to remain calm. On her next attempt, she got it right.
“Emergency!” The mechanical voice said. “Which service do you require?”
“Police!” She said into the receiver then turned her head as though someone had made a noise up the stairs. “And please hurry.”
When Jane had finished her call she felt woozy and fainted but she came around, minutes later and her head was hurting like mad. She put a hand to her temple, it felt wet.
“Blood!” She screamed and burst into tears. She suddenly wished that everything was still okay between her and David, but by now he was well on his way to a new job and a new life without her in America. David was a teacher; they met a few years ago, fell in love and had got married.
While waiting for the police to arrive, Jane started to think back to the good times she had shared with him. It was only six months ago that they had moved to the country to get away from the bustle of city life and his lusting ways with some of his students, and he had promised her that it was all behind him now. They loved the country but Jane said he took it too much for granted. It was a different story for her though. She loved to smell country smells, taste fresh country foods, feel the warmth of the sun on her face and listen to the country sounds but especially the sounds of children playing in the picnic areas. At one time she and David loved to go for picnics and he would always secretly put handfuls of her toffee into the picnic basket. And it was on these occasions he used to tell her she was special to him; she was a very gifted person after all. This was before his loins seem to have a mind of their own, that is. She had a passion for animals and went just about everywhere with her dog, Smokie, but her main love in life was to cook and as David had a bit of a sweet tooth, his favorite dish, was her toffee.
Jane’s thoughts were interrupted as she slipped off of the edge of the stairs.
“I wonder what’s keeping those damn policemen.” She cried out in frustration. “There’s never one around when you want one.”
When David reached the airport he realized his passport was missing so the only thing for him to do was to go back home, find it and catch a later flight. He was almost at the end of the drive back to the house when he decided to stop off for a bite to eat and a pint in his local pub.
“I should have listened to David.” Jane said again. “I should have agreed to the divorce he wanted, but, as always, as he constantly reminded me, I’ve been a burden on him and now I’ve messed things up for good. If only he hadn’t bought that blasted gun for my protection, but then who knows what might have happened to me if he hadn’t? He did say there had been a number of break-ins around the area lately; I suppose I should be glad he bought it? Well at least he didn’t taste the new batch of toffee before he went; he wouldn’t have liked it this time. I can’t think what went wrong unless it was something to do with the new cooker he bought?
When David reached home he was very drunk, his breath and clothes stank of beer, cigarettes and cheep perfume. He had met one of his girlfriends in the pub who was quite surprised to see him as she thought as did everyone else that he’d be on his flight away from England. And while in the pub he had consumed more than just a pint or two. “I should have eaten something.” He said out loud. “Then I wouldn’t be this drunk. I hope Jane has gone to bed she’d hit the roof if she found me back here.” He staggered along the garden path looking up at the windows of the house and noticed there were no lights on. That’s strange he thought, we always leave a few lights on to deter any would be burglars. The fuses must have tripped out. It was at that moment that he fell over Smokie, who was enjoying himself chewing on a bone, this started him off barking.
“Sssh.” He said to the dog wobbling a finger over his lips. “You don’t want to wake mummy up, do you? Anyway, why aren’t you with her?” He crawled for a few feet and managed to get himself up only to fall into the dustbin making one hell of a noise. He finally reached the front door and after trying several keys which he had forgotten to give back to Jane, he let himself in. He was ravenous so he staggered toward the kitchen to make himself a sandwich but he stopped dead in his tracks; on the table was a new batch of Jane’s delicious toffee.
“I’ll just have one little piece.” He said and while sampling the toffee gave up on the idea of a sandwich. He crept up the stairs to try to find his passport. The bedroom door was slightly ajar and he peered into the darkened, moonlit room. Straining his eyes he could just make out the outline of Jane’s naked body coming out of the adjoining bathroom. Seeing her like this made him think of the good times they once shared before he messed things up between them. I better go in quietly so I don’t frighten her, he thought. She gets so jumpy at the slightest noise. He staggered into the room.
“Is that you Smokie?” Jane called but no bark followed. “Who’s there?” She asked getting frightened and trying to cover herself with a towel.
David went to speak but found he couldn’t, his teeth were stuck together with toffee. Only a pathetic grunt came out.
“Tell me who you are or I’ll scream?”
He staggered over to her and placed his hands onto her shoulders. She immediately smelt the drink on his breath and the smoke and perfume clinging to his clothes. The towel fell to the floor and she screamed. “Get away from me you drunken bum.” She shouted and kicked him between his legs so hard his eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. He made a sort of squeaking sound and doubled up on the floor.
“Did you think you could just waltz in here and take me? Well, you won’t.”
David managed to get to his feet feeling very sick. Jane had moved to the bed, she pushed her hands under the pillow and found the gun he had bought for her. He rushed forward and grabbed her from behind. He wanted to tell her it was him in the room as she obviously couldn’t see him but only a series of grunts and groans came from his fastened mouth.
“Let me go you beer smelling animal.” She shouted as she managed to get free from his grip. She turned around and fired the gun three times into his stomach.
When the police finally arrived, an officer was asking her a lot of questions and writing her answers into a small notebook using a flashlight to see by.
“There was no sign of a break-in, Mrs. Marks.” He told her. “This could indicate the intruder had his own key. Are you quite sure you didn’t recognize the person who attacked you?”
“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t.” Jane said turning around towards the desk under the window with a wicked grin on her face. She opened a drawer in the desk and hid David’s passport out of sight. “I just heard someone in my room who kept making silly sounds like an animal might make. Well, as you can imagine, it frightened the life out of me. Anyhow, I couldn’t recognize him, officer.”
“Was that because it was too dark in your room Mrs. Marks?”
“Oh no, nothing as simple as that, officer I didn’t see a thing because I am totally blind.”

The End

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anthony, cooking, dark, dog, gun, hedger, home, love, lustful, made, published, short, story, the, toffee and tony