A pale, blonde woman in pink scrubs first asks my name and birthday. She has an accent that sounds Scandinavian, and she looks past the tears in my eyes as I answer her questions. She leads me down a ... [+]
Rolli is a Canadian author, cartoonist and songwriter. Visit his website (rollistuff.com) and follow him on Twitter at @rolliwrites. "The Sweet Striper" is in Short Circuit #11, Short Édition's quarterly review.
The children don't understand.The sweets they pine for are not squeezed from the machine with stripes intact. No—they must be painted on, by hand, with so much care. It is almost unimaginable, the care.My partner is a sweet turner. He holds the sweet and turns it. I apply the stripes. He is my partner. But also, we are in love.We work and live in the Cormack Candy Factory. Our region is Green Region 3, where sweets are painted and nuts are shelled. At day's end, we sweep up the shells, lay down blankets, and sleep.Mr. Cormack is a powerful man. He is a great and a terrible man. A generous man,