"Thanks," Sophia told the store clerk with another smile. She already knew about being allowed to sample the candy, of course, but it was nice of him to let Tim know. From Tim's reaction she could tell he was a bit overwhelmed by everything. Taking him to a quieter part of the store and away from Jon--he was a nice guy, but he was kind of loud--might calm him down a bit she figured. So with his hand still in hers, Sophia picked a spot of the store to check out and led Tim over there.

Together they disappeared around the corner of a shelf so they were out of sight of the counter and Jon. The aisle they were on consisted of various gummy candy on one side, and hard candy on the other. Among the gummies were things like peach rings, gummy worms, and jelly beans sorted by flavor. The hard candy had a large variety of things to be found: lemon drops, jaw breakers, rock candy, mints, and ribbon candy. All around there were small signs saying, 'Feel free to sample!'. Most of these candies were in clear containers with lids to help keep them fresh, and there were tongs that you could use to pick out a single piece or else put what you want in the paper bags that were located nearby. Here you could buy candy by the ounce. To make it easier to find out how much you had there was a whimsical scale on which to weigh your bag of candy. They'd weigh it again at the front counter when you went to pay.

"This looks good," Sophia announced. Then more quietly she added, "You seemed a bit overwhelmed so I thought somewhere quieter and out of sight would be a good place to start. Sorry about that, Tim." If she had known that there would be someone so loud and rambunctious running the store front today, Sophia would have waited for another day when one of the store owners--who were older and quieter--was running the shop to come. Then again, she herself could be a bit loud and rambunctious sometimes. She hoped she didn't wear Tim out too much...