The Box of Seven Hells (Ch. 2)

The Box of Seven Hells

Delicious falls in love with Betty Sue. Maria sees Betty Sue for the first time, tells of her heartbreak at being confined in a coma and recounts other events which happened inside the boxes. Delicious kisses Betty Sue, and has his first battle with Mister Trepidation.

Delicious

It is the darkest part of night as a figure edges its way slowly through the darkness. It is Delicious. He pauses. I need to quit fiddling around and get myself and Maria out of this. To Delicious, as he recalls his life in The Box of Seven Hells, just the thought of the word box makes him shiver. How he came to be in two boxes at the same time, Delicious can not comprehend.

         Beside him, the casing has been removed from the Adorno pencil sharpener and she lies on the floor. She is partially bathed in a minute glow of violet light entering the lantern box through the aperture Delicious has created by jamming a green rubber band into the space between the lid of the lantern box and its side. A red rubber band has been attached on the end of the green one and trails down the side of the lantern box.

         Another day, Delicious thinks. Maybe Maria will smile for me this morning.

          "Ummm," he mutters to himself. "That right there ain't much of a rope."

         Delicious is tired, extremely so, but for only the second time in his life he is thankful for the DNA of cocoa beans and palm oil flowing in his veins. I will rest a moment, he thinks. Then I will finish this before morning comes.

          The night still slept soundly as Delicious looked up at the rope again, or the ladder as he was now calling it. Two more rubber bands had been interlocked and the lower end of the ladder now rested against the floor of the lantern box.

         Delicious looked over at Betty Sue. Still asleep, he thought. He remembered how he had climbed on top of her to jam the first rubber band into its place.

          Even in this black impostor of a grave it had felt so good to touch a woman once more. Yes, he knew she was an expensive Adorno pencil sharpener, and he was only a three for a penny Tootsie Roll, but maybe there was room for talk after he had put her together again. He hoped so. Maybe there could be talk of stepping out together.

          Aloud he spoke as he looked at her, "Your lips are akin to the most delicate rosewood. Mahogany is the primary color of your eyes. I smell the alluring scent of an Appalachian white pine as I look at you. And is it the sweet fragrance of oil of myrrh you have rubbed behind your ears?"

          As he turned from her, Delicious thought he detected the mere hint of a smile upon her face.

          Behind him, Betty Sue smiled. It seemed as if she had been waiting a day past the end of forever, but he had at last spoken. I think Delicious really likes my raisins, she thought as sleep took her again. And I love the taste of his cocoa.

          Delicious smiled as he stood there contemplating. Betty Sue was sure a fine woman. He wanted to take her in his arms and taste the rosewood of her lips, but it was coming on for dawn and he had only a few hours left before she started to fall.

          Turning once more, Delicious approached Betty Sue. As he did so, he pushed his thoughts toward the one part of her it needed to be dwelling on in this second.

          Having mastered the true wish of his mind, Delicious reached for the part of Betty Sue he must now take in his hands. He wanted her lips caressing his. He wanted her full embrace, and most of all he wanted her heart, but it was with this part of her he must be content.

***

Betty Sue was aware in that moment Delicious came toward her, although she was not fully conscious. At first, she thought he was going to kiss her. But no, he was actually reaching for her cutting edge, that part of her which defined her very being as an Adorno pencil sharpener.

         It's okay, she thought. He already possesses the heart of my mind; he will now carry with him the heart of my body.

         Delicious slowly examined the mechanism he had obtained from Betty Sue. Ummm, he thought. I begin to see the reason Betty Sue thought she was broken. This rotating shaft is so bound with rust it can not turn to perform the duty of a pencil sharpener. I will clean it properly and give it a taste of oil before I return it. Nevertheless, the cutting edge has not been hampered by the rust. Yes, it will execute the task at hand almost effortlessly.

          Delicious was thinking of Betty Sue as he walked toward the ladder. Maybe, I should put her casing back on her and climb on top of her again to reach the lid of the lantern box. I am not confident the ladder is securely jammed into place. What if it falls? The rubber bands have previously shown they are not to be trusted. A Tootsie Roll with a broken leg will have a difficult task in saving Maria.

          Reaching into the pocket of his jeans, Delicious felt for the small penknife he carried there. Removing it, he opened what he knew to be the sharpest blade. Of course, perhaps he could have managed the freeing of Maria with the penknife, but it would have consumed days, whereas Betty Sue's cutting edge could accomplish the same results in a matter of minutes.

         Using the penknife, Delicious began to scrape the rust from the shaft of the cutting edge. At first it came off easily enough, until he reached the mother layer which was pitted and scarred with age.

          Diligently, Delicious scraped, polished and rubbed until the shaft began to shine. When he was satisfied with the appearance of the shaft, Delicious walked to where Betty Sue lay on the floor of the lantern box.

          "Betty Sue," he spoke in a low voice. "Betty Sue?"

          Betty Sue sensed the approach of Delicious and wished she had some more myrrh to splash behind her ears. Perhaps, I could send Delicious to obtain it. Heh-heh. No, that would not do. But all the same I wish for it.

          "Betty Sue, I need your assistance. I will put your casing back on you and climb on top of you to reach the lid of the lantern box."

          "It's okay, Delicious. I trust you."

          A few moments faded into the past before Delicious and Betty Sue were moving toward the side of the lantern box. In his left hand Delicious firmly held the cutting edge; his right hand held the hand of Betty Sue just as firmly.

          "Delicious, kiss me one time before you go up there."

          Delicious' legs trembled as he kissed her. Her lips were sweet and warm, the color of pink rosebuds, Delicious thought. Despite being composed of tin and steel, Betty Sue is herself delicious, a woman of the first kind.

Maria

Maria does not know how great-great-grandmother did it, neither does she know why it occurred. However, great-great-grandmother was the one originally confined to the world of the lantern box. I must remember. I must make plans for my escape from The Box of Seven Hells, she thinks in that moment before falling asleep. Ummm, great-great-grandmother was just an upside down photograph in Mama's old, lantern box. How did she do it?

         The means of her escape from the lantern box is, at the present time, of no consequence. Although I think about it from time to time, the particulars of her escape have no bearing on my own attempt to get away from The Box of Seven Hells.

***

One and twenty months, this is what they have amounted to, the days of my life since the autumn of 1977. I have counted off each day in my heart, and each day I have reminded myself that my name is Maria.

         The lantern box, The Box of Seven Hells and my life are much the same as they were in 1977 with the exception of a few changes. I have become resigned to the possibility that I may be imprisoned in these boxes forever, but my heart is strong. My determination to escape will never diminish. I am here in the lantern box by choice, but I am still imprisoned by The Box of Seven Hells. To go home, I must find a way to defeat Mister Trepidation.

         The desire in my heart to get out of these boxes grows stronger as each day passes. I truly am a girl called Maria. Yes, yes, I do not deceive myself; I am human! I am coming home, Mama.

***

On this day, in my mind I am outside. The bantam rooster crows as the dim, orchid light of dawn wavers in my eyes. It is early March and the old bones of previous snows lie slushy and scattered among the fields of slowly emerging Stars of Bethlehem. Do I dream? Am I awake? Where is Mama? Is my heart released from this pain I carry constantly?

         Mama will soon awaken and I will hear the sound of the chain unwinding from the pulley as she draws morning's first water from the well. The spit of quarter-frozen bacon frying on the wood stove, hickory smoke . . .

         The faint, imagined smell of freedom wafts herself from my heart as suddenly as she has appeared. And I am hearing the voice of Delicious. I want to move toward him to greet him, but the clink of chains pierce my awareness and I am bound in the grip of lethargy.

          Yes, I dream. My heart clutches at the breath of life lingering inside me and as the grains of autumn wheat scratch at the corners of my eyes, I promise myself this will be the last time I will dream. I awaken later, and standing there beside me is Delicious. In this manner, a new day begins and soon passes into oblivion. And another gets in line.

***

Later on, nigh on to midnight, Maria is thinking. Another day is done. Time herself has become erratic for me. We were once kinfolks. Now that I have come to this, the cogwheels of her heart have betrayed me.

          Am I asleep? Do I dream despite my promise, or is it truly a voice I hear?

         The vague sounds stir my awareness gently. I imagine in my heart that I hear a midnight violin making conversation with a piano. Or is it the duet of two cave crickets alternately chirping, accompanied by the steady ping of water droplets striking the surface of a cave pond?

          Yes, my heart! The soft, steady murmur of voices fiddle through the cardboard barrier pressed against my left ear.

         I realize the night now sleeps, curled like a snoring caricature of itself around my body. And here in the middle of midnight, after all these months of sameness, is something new! I hear a voice in the night! A voice from the outside!

          As I cast my seine across blackness, little pieces of sound cling to my net. Snatches of conversation and incoherent words flow in and out of my ears like the sounds of a distant katydid fading and rising.

         Oh, I am trying so hard to hear! Tears squeeze themselves from the corners of my eyes and roll down across my cheeks, leaving a wet trail of static dancing erratically across my face.

          I strain to hear as a violin speaks hesitantly from somewhere quite near . . .

         "Amelia, should we give this photograph to James?" I hear the sweet tinkle of a piano as it replies.

         "Rosalee, I think there is a better one in that lantern box over there. We'll give that one to James."

         Stuck in the center of the middle of midnight, I cry as I have never cried before, tears of happiness. It is them! I know it is!

         Words, a violin, a piano, two women . . . As I cry, the voice of the piano begins to play. "On a hill, far away . . ." The violin sings sweetly across my mind. My mother, my aunty, I think as the voices fade.

Maria Sees Betty Sue

The second time Maria opened her eyes some of her fear had soured away into strength. Slowly, her mind had regained its former place, but she had not been the same.

         In the beginning, she had only been aware of something different, as if she had been another person, not herself. She had tried to stand up, but her legs had wobbled the way they had when she had first tried to walk with stilts. She had closed her eyes to fight the pain in her forehead.

         Upon reopening her eyes after seeing Delicious, Betty Sue and Mister Lincoln alive and staring at her, her heart had jumped in her chest and a little scream had worked its way out of her.

         Standing before her, with her hand on Maria's forehead, had been something so strange Maria had not been able to imagine whether her eyes had been seeing what her mind had been telling her they were seeing. A pencil sharpener . . .

         Yes, a pencil sharpener, but one unlike any other pencil sharpener she had ever seen. The pencil sharpener had smiled as Maria was asking herself, Is that Betty Sue?

***

"Hello," the pencil sharpener said. "My name is Betty Sue. I do hope we will become friends. I see you are looking at me strangely. Oh, it's okay. I am an Adorno pencil sharpener. Aren't I cute?"

         Oh yes, she was certainly cute, Maria thought. Betty Sue was only about six inches tall, but she was stacked. She had it all, thought Maria. Betty Sue was ornate. To Maria it seemed as if Betty Sue had simply stepped from a page of a Montgomery Ward catalog from the year 1910.

         She was perfectly proportioned. With her mahogany eyes of the deepest color, lips a plenty, hair of black cut short and centerfold legs, Betty Sue wasn't just ornate, she was perfection. On top of this, her skin bloomed with the color of light walnut veneer.

         "Have we met before, Betty Sue?"

         "No child, I thought you were someone I knew, but kindness stares back at me when I look into your eyes. Decidedly, you are not Maria."

         "But I am, Betty Sue, but I am. I am Maria."

         "Yes, yes. I can see it now, child. You are Maria, and on the other side of the fence, you are not Maria. Had I not seen Maria leave the lantern box and had my eyes not been fastened upon you at the same time, doubt herself would be clinging to me at this very moment like the stink of dried red herring.

         "You see child, the Maria who formerly lived here with us possessed another name. We called her Maria Carlotta. She is your great-great-grandmother. You are so like her in your facial appearance. You see little one, what has happened? Maria Carlotta vanished from the place where you now sit, just as you appeared there."

         "Where am I, Betty Sue?" Mama, Mama, I want to come home.

         "Don't worry sweet child, you are among friends. You and I have already introduced ourselves, but these two standing on either side of me are Delicious and Mister Lincoln. As you can see, Delicious is a Tootsie Roll. He tells me you and he have met before.

          "And Mister Lincoln? Why, he's first and foremost a lawyer, but he has admirably succeeded at other occupations in his life. Those rubbery things in the corner over there are rubber bands. You will want to be wary of them. They aided Maria Carlotta when she assumed your life outside. I know in my heart they are evil."

         At this opportune moment a loud scoff worked its way out of Betty Sue and flung itself into the air of the lantern box. She continued speaking as if she had never paused. "As for where you are, you are with us. We live here in this lantern box. It's not so bad here. It's rather pleasant at times, but each of us residents have our own hopes and dreams. Me? Far away from the lantern box, in a small village in South Dakota I used to be mounted on a wall in a rural schoolhouse. I was so happy there. Someday, I would like to return.

         "Delicious is happy with his place in life. It's supposed to be a secret, but all Delicious yearns for is to be beside the woman of his heart." Delicious and Betty Sue glanced toward each other. "Mister Lincoln tells us his own ambition is to win the most difficult court case ever filed. Delicious, Mister Lincoln, why don't you boys step up and tell Maria a little bit about your lives?

         "And Maria, time is different here in the box. Our sun rises only on Thursdays. Our days are inconsistent here in the lantern box. Thursdays sometimes occur twice a week, then there are the lapses, the times Thursdays happen only once a month. One time a period of six months passed between Thursdays. Don't worry, soon enough you will become accustomed to our time."

         "Oh, Betty Sue, You are so cute, so splendid. I think I will like it here."

         "Of course you will child."

         Delicious, Maria could see, was a little shy, but he stepped forward, bowing low. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance again, Maria. My name is Delicious. I can sing and dance, but most folks tell me the thing I am best at is being delicious."

         "Yes, yes, he's the best thing since peppermint candy sticks, but he has a tendency to cry and get a little sticky," Mister Lincoln interposed.

         Delicious looked askance at Mister Lincoln, "At least I ain't got a stovepipe setting on my head," he mumbled.

         "Thank ye, son. I believe that's the first thing in the way of a compliment you ever uttered in my presence. Allow me to give you some advice youngster. Don't even think about looking at the lovely Betty Sue's bloomers. Even if she's showing them to you, don't look. That lovely, little lady will crack your jaw and twist your ankle all the way to next Saturday."

         Both Mister Lincoln and Delicious felt a smile of satisfaction begin to creep across their cheeks.

         Both of you are as cute as you can be, and I am pleased plumb up to my eyebrows to be here looking at you, Maria thought. Aloud she spoke, "Delicious, Mister Lincoln, take my hand and show me around. Where will I sleep? Do we have a clock?"

          Mister Lincoln stumbled in his hurry to reach Maria's side before Delicious could get there. Nevertheless, both he and Delicious grabbed one of Maria's hands at almost the same moment, and they began to walk with her around the lantern box.

          "It ain't a thing like the comforts of home, nor a fancy hotel on the streets of Paris," Mister Lincoln drawled as he removed from one of his pockets a plain, undecorated pocket watch. "This right here is the closest match to a clock in this here box. She'll be alright as long as she ticks."

          Mister Lincoln is fetching, delightfully so, thought Maria. It was hard for Maria to discern his features in the dull, gray light of the lantern box, but Maria could see that his complexion was a vague copper color, overlaid in places with turquoise.

         He looked just like his engraving on the penny, and he had a way of seeming to undulate as he walked. Although his legs were long and well proportioned, it would be appropriate to say Mister Lincoln rolled rather than walked. In this manner, Mister Lincoln and Delicious introduced Maria to the confines of the lantern box. Constantly trading banter, the two of them escorted Maria throughout the lantern box.

Delicious

Delicious could not regain control of himself after kissing Betty Sue. Again he kissed her, and once more he tasted her sweet lips. The permeating scent of myrrh wafted its way between them and clung to them much the same as passion as their lips joined for the fourth time.

         Betty Sue thought she was in heaven as Delicious kissed her, kissed her, kissed her and kissed her. Now I am his, she thought.

Mister Tredidation

I am having pains in my heart about sneaking that Tootsie Roll into the Tootsie Roll factory. Is it remorse or mere second thoughts?

          I opened up one of those boxes of Tootsie Rolls that were waiting to be shipped out to retailers, and placed the Tootsie Roll inside . . . I am reluctant to have him die in that manner. I am of a mind to go back to the factory before he's shippied out. Don't get me wrong; I have no plans to rescue him.

         I created him with love in my heart, but he just won't listen to me. All the things I planned for him, he has rejected. Now, we must face each other and do battle, with death awaiting one of us.

Delicious

With a measure of reluctance seeded in his heart, Delicious parted his lips from Betty Sue's. Trepidation knew his name at this moment. Yes, thought Delicious. He and Mister Trepidation had encountered each other more than once in their lifetimes.

         Out of common courtesy they might even speak to each other, if they by chance were to meet on the street. But friends? Naw, to him Mister Trepidation was just another hell living in this world. Memories rolled through Delicious' mind as he hesitated, and he recalled his first meeting with trepidation. Ain't no thing, I ain't a scared of him nohow. Delicious thought. But The Box of Seven Hells? Maybe.

         Yeah, trepidation sure made an entrance on the day we first encountered each other, Delicious thought. It was in the year 1908, close to the day I was born. I was still in the factory wondering what would become of me, all bundled up in a Tootsie Roll box. Speaking of boxes, I reckon I was born with an uncommon dislike for them.

         There I was, setting on a shelf waiting to go to Kokomo, Indiana or any other place which might appear on the shipping list. Against my will mind you, but not having much of a choice in the matter at hand. Never mind the fact I was currently not in the mood for travel or sightseeing.

         It was then that Mister Trepidation snuck up on me. Yeah, he was swift-footed and sly. He grabbed himself a hold on my mind with a grip so strong I began to experience a measure of nausea.

         Yeah, of a sudden, Mister Trepidation shifted his left hand to my throat and began to squeeze. I countered his measure by placing my hands on his throat and commenced to throttle him. We fought back and forth, wresting and rolling till finally his image began to fade from my vision.

         Mister Trepidation screamed as he fled, "I'll be back. Don't you worry yourself none about me, once I lay my hands on someone they belong to me. I'll be back. I'll be back."

         "Ain't no thing," I said to myself. "I ain't a scared of him nohow." But maybe I was . . .

***

There I was, lying in a Tootsie Roll box on a shelf with seventeen Tootsie Rolls packed around me. I was the only misfit of the whole bunch, which puzzled me. I laid there wondering what was to become of me. "How will I get myself out of this box?" I questioned myself aloud. I have no intention of being shipped to Kokomo, Indiana, nor any other place which might appear on my shipping label. How will I get myself out of this box?

In the Lantern Box

Delicious shook his head to clear his thoughts as he stepped away from Betty Sue. But the shaking of his head was ineffective. His head ached. His thoughts rushed quickly back into his mind. Wonder if Mister Trepidation is lurking in the lantern box? If I get my hands on him again, I'll do him in.

         Yeah, Mister Trepidation is messing with the wrong Tootsie Roll. I ain't a scared of him nohow. I've got to get myself together and finish this for the sake of Maria.

***

But alas, memories crowded back into his heart, and a sharp pain struck him right behind the orbits of his eyes . . .

          He was back in the Tootsie Roll box . . .

          What is my first course of action to get myself out of this box? Should I try rocking it back and forth? Yep.

         He took himself a glance toward the seventeen Tootsie Rolls. He was thinking about asking for their assistance, but he then noticed they were just normal Tootsie Rolls. They didn't look back at him. They didn't smile. They didn't do a thing except grace him with their presence.

         Alas.

         Maybe it was only his imagination, but he felt in his heart and in his mind that he was something more than a Tootsie Roll.