Living life on the edge

10 | Toddlers

The bakery that day was pretty quiet, they had the odd person stop by to get cakes for their at home celebrations but apart from that, it was silence. Karl lounged in a plastic foldable chair as he flung his legs onto the wooden countertops. The old, staticky radio covered up the bustling crowds outside. "This is your local news coming through to inform that its a very special day for kinoko, why you ask? Well its a royal wedding of course" the posh radio presenter spoke in a cheery voice. Everyone seemed so cheery about the royal wedding.

Not karl.

It was just another normal day for karl... or at least he tried to tell himself it was. But from the news spreading around the town and outside of town, it was pretty hard to ignore. Karl rolled his eyes at the presenters small announcement and shut off the radio quickly. He didn't want to hear another word out of anyone's voice today. It would just be 'wedding' this and 'wedding' that. He stared off at the small cobwebs that had gathered in the corner of the shop and daydreamed...

Suddenly, he was startled by a loud tune from a dozen trumpets just outside of his door. He made his way over to the half window and peered open to thin curtains to see what was happening. He knew what was happening... of corse. But his curiosity just got the better of him. What if Nicholas could find a way to sneak away and run to the bakery just like he did when they first met. When they first met. It was just like then, except karl was happy, not alone and bored out of his brains.

Just as he pulled back one of the curtains, they came into sight. the 'perfect couple' as everyone referred them too, because they always looked happy together, like... always. Even though people didn't know about their 'relationship' until a couple weeks ago.

The carriage that trundled past was decorated with white ribbons and bows all over, topped with a huge 'just married' sign on the front and back. As if it wasn't obvious enough, with Alex wearing the biggest wedding dress possible with a long vale that trailed behind her. Nick... sorry, prince Nicholas was wearing a fancy soldier like uniform tailored to the perfect size, his hair was short and jelled back, his shoes polished enough to make someone go blind.

"Karl?"

"Yes nick"

"If i ever get married..."

"Nick your 15 where the honk did this come from" karl said as he laughed.

"Shut up... anyway if i get married, i want my wedding to be simple as possible, not many guests, casual clothing, and a lot of food," he said, almost drooling at the thought of the amount of food he could get.

"What about you?" Nick continued.

"Hmm, probably the same, my dad would be really over organised and get on my nerves, but I'd probably have it at the bakery"

The pair laughed and continued to talk about their wedding plans' for the future.

Karls laughter died down as he spoke again, "that reminds me, i made something for you earlier" he reached into his pocket and pulled out two simple rings made from silver "one for me... one for you, like friendship rings you know".

"What the honk karl how did you make these on your own"

"Well my dad helped me a bit, i told him i met this girl in town and he said we should make friendship rings for each other"

"A girl?" Nick asked, sounding quite hurt.

"It was you silly, gosh your so stupid sometimes" he teased.

They both placed their perfectly fitted rings onto their index fingers and smiled excitedly at each other.
"Thanks karl"

Karl looked down at his index finger and started twisting the old rusted ring still placed on there. Simple? He thought. What changed?

He was once again startled out of his misery by a loud band on the door in front of him. He looked up and saw nothing, then he opened the door and looked again, nothing. Just a gush of wind blowing the stray hairs out of his eyes. He heard another little mumble from his feet.

He looked down to be presented with a small toddler sat on the mat rubbing his little forehead. Seconds later, a women in a beautiful orange dress that matched her hair came along and picked up the wining child.

"I'm so sorry for that..." the women apologised to Karl, "my son can be a bit adventurous at times, he must have smelt the delicious bread and ran towards in." Hm sounds familiar, karl thought.

"He can have some if you want" karl said happily, trying to hide the pure disgust he felt by the sight of a wining child.

"Oh that would be great" the women thanked him and stepped inside the shop. Karl made his way back over to the counter as the pretty woman followed him, carrying her child in her arms.

"So do you live around here?" Karl asked as he reached upon a shelf to get a requested piece of bread.

"Um no actually I'm prince clays wife... princess floris" the women said awkwardly, hoping it wouldn't cause that much trouble or conversation.

Karl stopped dead. Causing the basket of bread to fall off of the shelf and spill all over the floor.

"Oh no I'm dearly sorry I didn't mean to cause any issues"

The nice women placed her child onto the counter and began to pick up the bread.

"It's fine honestly ill clean this up" he was incredibly embarrassed.

The two worked together to clean up the mess on the floor, after all of the bread was put in the trash, they spoke again,
"so..." floris looked over at the nameplate still on the counter, "Darryl? Is it?" Karl looked up, soon after realising what she had said, "oh no, thats my fathers name, I'm karl" he greeted.

"Karl?" Floris acted confused, "works at a bakery..." she began talking quietly to himself. Then she looked at the last name of his father, 'jacobs'.

"Oh"

"what?"karl questioned, now paying full attention to her as he had just came back from getting her a seat. The child chewed on a piece of bread contently on his mothers lap. "So your Karl?"

"I'm not quite sure what you mean"

"Karl Jacobs, the one nick told me about, he tells me everything you know, but don't worry I haven't told anyone else... i pinky promised him"

Karls eyes widened as his body began to stiffen up...

"Anyway i better get going back to clay, he's probably worried out of his brains" she announced and quickly rushed out of the door with a toddler in her arms...