The Graduation Cake
I read the last page aloud, slowly, in the voice I used for thirty years at closing tables. It was a sealed adoption decree from the district court in Twin …
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The Paczki Cake
The two men in suits did not sit down. They stood just inside the door of the banquet room, with their coats open, and the taller one showed me a …
The Paczki Cake Read MoreThe Rosary Beads
I opened the door myself, with the rosary beads still wound around my fingers, and found a small woman in a gray overcoat on the porch, with two men in …
The Rosary Beads Read MoreThe Banana Pudding
I set the last page in the middle of the table, right beside the banana pudding, and every head in the room leaned toward it. It was a stack of …
The Banana Pudding Read MoreThe Calculator Cake
I laid the last page flat on the table, under the lamp, and Megan leaned in beside me with her reading glasses pushed up into her hair. It was a …
The Calculator Cake Read MoreThe Shoofly Pie
Linda took the last page from my hand. She read the gold seal first, then the first line, and the color left her face the way water leaves a sink. …
The Shoofly Pie Read MoreThe Peanut Brittle
I turned the last page face up on the dessert table, beside the pound cake, and read it aloud to the fellowship hall in the same steady voice that leads …
The Peanut Brittle Read MoreThe Brunch Table
I turned the last page over and let it lie on the white tablecloth beside the pastries, where everyone at the long table could see it. It was an order …
The Brunch Table Read MoreThe Rhubarb Pie
I left the last page face down and said nothing, because Tomás had already said it for me. “Gus did it before he passed, Mrs. Halvorsen,” he repeated, and he …
The Rhubarb Pie Read MoreThe Tool Chest
I took the last page out from against my chest and laid it on the picnic table in the glow of the fireworks. It was a letter from a man …
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