Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
"Oh, that’s cool. What do you vend?"
Cassidy waited a moment before responding. The sun glinted in his nose ring and picked out some red strands in his hair.
"Taxidermy," he said.
CHAPTER 4
Cassidy
Once, Cassidy Darling had experienced the displeasure of telling a friend he’d seen his boyfriend making out with someone else at a bar. There was a moment when his friend’s whole face collapsed, like mortification and despair had the power to leave marks on his physical reality.
River’s face was a surprisingly similar mask of mortification and despair. Their wide blue eyes bugged out in horror, their mouth gaped, and their forehead knotted.
"Ohmygod, fuck. I’m … I … I didn’t … Fuck."
They twisted the handles of their canvas bag around their hands so tightly he worried they’d injure themself.
"Don’t worry about it," Cassidy started to say, but before he could, River turned tail and scampered away.
Once all his pieces were loaded in and his table set up, Cassidy went back outside. It was thirty minutes until the doors opened and already there was a line that snaked through the parking lot. This was his last bit of comfort before he’d be subject to the fluorescent lights in the convention center for three solid days.
Migraines were the cost of vending there, unfortunately. He’d made sure he was rested and hydrated in an attempt to slightly mitigate the effects, but that was all he could do.
Cassidy had been excited to realize his table was next to the cat shelter’s and he might see River. Their brief interaction the week before had piqued his curiosity. Hell, they were gorgeous, interesting, and adorably awkward—what wasn’t to like?
The truth was, he understood why some people didn’t like taxidermy, especially someone who worked with live animals. He hadn’t expected that level of scorn from River, though.
He’d just have to hope that once they became more familiar with it, River could see past his craft’s stereotypes to the art of it—at least enough to keep getting to know him.
Because Cassidy definitely wanted to get to know River. And he only had the three days of Craftmas to make it happen.
Okay, it’s time to debut CANDLEDERMY!
The text from Cassidy’s sister, Nora, came ten minutes before they opened the doors and was his cue to get back to their table.
"I’m still not sold on that name," he told her as he approached.
The table looked marvelous. Nora had taken care in hanging the larger pieces on the wall behind the table and displaying the pieces with flat bases on a pyramid of wooden boxes that Cassidy had built new for this year.
Their newest collaborations commanded the table.
Nora was a chandler, and both she and Cassidy hated for anything to go to waste. So they’d had the idea to combine their crafts: the fat that Cassidy removed from animals during the taxidermy process could be rendered for candles, and the bones became the material for candle holders, candelabras, and other similar decor.
The first time they’d tried the rendered fat, they candles had ended up too liquid, so Nora began experimenting with different ratios, mixing the fat with beeswax she bought from a beekeeper in New Orleans. After much trial and error, she found a ratio that produced a sturdy candle that burned with the sweet scent of beeswax.
Her designs began simply: turning an elk’s rib into a candlestick or a curve of skunk vertebrae into a menorah. Then she began to combine the materials with her metalworking skills, and something unique was born: candlescapes that were usable art.
One of Cassidy’s favorite pieces had begun as a long piece of fallen wood. On one side, Nora had attached a terra cotta planter that held a small cactus; on the other side, the delicate bones of a hawk’s wing curled around a metal cactus blossom, at the top of which was a metal holder and a tall, wide candle tinted sage green. It would be just as gorgeous as the centerpiece for a dinner party table as it would sitting on a windowsill.
"I’m still not sold on that term," he told Nora. "But the booth looks great. Thanks for taking the lead on that."
"Why not?"
"Because, the -dermy part of taxidermy means skin, so without the taxi- part, which means arrangement, it’s like you’re calling them skin candles, which sounds creepy. And inaccurate."
Nora rolled her eyes.
"You know people just like an evocative portmanteau, right? They’re not actually parsing the Greek and Latin root words to see if the etymology is sound. Besides, Taxicandles sounds like an emergency product you keep in your pocket in case your Lyft is too dark and Dermicandles sound even more like creepy skin candles."
Cassidy couldn’t argue with that.
"Um." She leaned close. "What’s the deal with Jumpy over there?"
She inclined her head slightly to River, who had been keeping conspicuously busy since Cassidy had walked up.