Mama's Little Bakery

This is a short story.

                   Mama’s Little Bakery

“Mama” as she was known by everybody, was popular for her moist cakes and crunchy mouth melting cookies. Her tiny little bakery was extremely famous in the small sunshine town far away from the hustle and bustle of the city that seemed to be propelling forward with full gusto these days.

Mama was a middle-aged small lady who mostly liked dressing in ankle length dresses with big floral prints on them; the pink one was her favorite. Her hair had almost completely turned white with few strands of black, a reminder of the youth that she had once lived. She always carried a white small purse decorated with pearls into which went the money she received from hungry little naughty kids. This was rarely the case as Mama loved placing her best tasting cookies in those tiny little palms. She was an absolute hit among all the kids in the neighborhood.

The day was bright with the smell of fresh ground coffee tickling the taste buds of people who had stepped to enjoy the warmth of the sun. Mama was especially cheery that day with happiness writ large on her face. Her only son was coming to visit her over the weekend. It had been long since she had seen David and he had finally found time in his busy schedule to visit her.

Mama got busy in cleaning the house, decorating it with fresh flowers and stacking up photographs of David all around the house. She was planning to bake his favorite lychee cheese cake and got into making her grocery list. Mama was slightly tired at the end of a busy day and by the time she started supper, she had completely forgotten about the hourly power shutdown that happened every night.

She got up from her chair trying to look around for the emergency light. After tumbling here and there, her fingers finally found the switch of the emergency light and turned it on. She walked back to her small dining table and placed the light on the sill of the glass window that overlooked the now dark and lonely alleys of the small town.

As she started eating, she felt a slight movement from the corner of her eye. She looked up peering into the window holding the light close to her face, she saw a woman in the house right opposite to hers.  The woman seemed to be in pain, she was crying out to someone. All of a sudden, the woman’s hand clasped over a big shiny kitchen knife, Mama shouting at the top of her voice started running as fast as her legs could carry her.

Once out, the light in the opposite house had vanished. She was standing alone in the chilly cold winter night with shivering hands and beads of perspiration on her forehead. Once safely in her house, Mama decided to inform the police. She called up the local police station and gave the address of the opposite house along with the details of what she had seen to Officer Mark. He assured her that he would come over the next day to check.

The next day, Mama was back in business as usual. With one more day for David’s arrival, she went shopping and got eggs, flour, sugar, cream, and specially handpicked the lychees. When Mama returned back to her bakery, her neighbor told her that Officer Mark had turned up and had asked her to convey his assurance to Mama as there had been no causalities and everything was absolutely fine.

Mama was scared to look out of the window when the scheduled power shut down happened that day. She did not want to see that woman’s anguish. It gave Mama the chills. But the confidence given by Officer Mark made her look again.  As expected, the same event repeated itself. Mama was terrified out of her wits and was determined not to go out this time. She decided to sleep over it with the plan of bringing the police over to her house the next day during the power shutdown to make them see what she was experiencing.

The following day, as Mama got ready to go to the police station, she received a phone call from David that he would be coming that day instead of the weekend. Mama felt better now as David would be there that night with her and dropped the idea of going to the police.

She prepared all his favorite dishes; the cake was out from the oven for cooling after which she would dress it with cream and lychees. She closed the bakery earlier than usual, got dressed in her favorite pink dress and waited.  The clock struck 7; Mama wished David would hurry home before the power shutdown.

As Mama waited, the usual fear of seeing the lady started creeping into her, how she wished she had gone to the police. No matter how much she tried averting her eyes from the window, curiosity made her look, a part of Mama wanted to help that woman. Today, the lady was crying loudly with a photo pressed hard against her chest. As Mama looked on, she started feeling dizzy, she was out of breath, and her heart was palpitating faster with every second. Mama lost her balance and dropped to the ground. The pink floral dress drenched in blood from the stab she had given herself using the big shiny kitchen knife. The lychee cake lay smashed across the picture of her young son David.

Next morning, the entire town came to mourn the death of sweet little Mama. They all blessed her peace as she was placed in a beautiful coffin and gently made to lie next to the grave of her son.