Day 7 - 14, 062 Words

I got a lot of writing done today in the "media pods" in the hotel lobby. Most of it has been hilarious, and fun,and my plot is moving along nicely. Emma has been working at the bakery for a few days when a very interesting customer comes into the bakery. It's a long excerpt, but its worth it. (FYI Alejandro is the love interest)

I was flipping through the cupcake section of the recipe book when I heard the bell ring, indicating we had a customer. I took a quick glance over my shoulder and saw that Alejandro was busy. He turned, and nodded,letting me know that I could handle it myself.

            I moved quickly out of the kitchen, and put a smile on my face. It was a young mother with her three year old daughter. The mother was tall, and pale, with lanky, mousy brown hair. She was wearing a homespun grey sweater paired with DILF by Dawson Bleery brand khakis, which probably looked great on her husband. They did her no favours. She carried with her a yoga mat, inexplicably wrapped in a dog leash. The daughter had cute little blonde pigtails, and was wearing a bubblegum pink T shirt emblazoned, disturbingly, with the words “Fatally Attracted to Cuteness”, with a picture of herself on the back. I broadened my smile as I made eye contact with the mother, and said “How can I help you two today?”

            When the mother looked at me, she gave me a queer, questioning look. And she looked at me a little too intently, and a little too long. Then she shook her head to herself, as if whatever she had been thinking was crazy.

            “Can you give us a minute to talk it over?” the mother asked.

            “Of course,” I responded, and stood quietly waiting for their order. And, of course, listening to every word they were saying.

            “Alright, Bo-coop, what would you like?” the mother asked, seemingly directed towards the child. In response, the child mumbled something incoherent, as very young children do. The mother did not seem to understand, and asked again. The child mumbled to same incoherent words as before, and flailed her tiny chubby hand in the direction of the chocolate chip cookies.

            “No, Bo-coop, use your words with Mommy,” the mother reminded. ‘Bo-coop’ did not seem to take kindly to this, and continued to flail a chubby hand in the direction of the cookies screaming incoherently, as tears as chubby as her little hands rolled down her cheeks. Undeterred, the mother calmly reminded Bo-coop to use her words or she would get no treats. Surprisingly, this calmed Bo-coop down immediately.

            “Coo-ookie,” Bo-coop said haltingly.

            After giving her daughter an approving smile, the mother turned to me. “Are those cookies made with only organic ingredients?”

            Having only worked at the bakery for a few days, I had to run into the back and ask Alejandro, who smirked knowingly when he told me that they weren’t. I ran back out front, and told the mother the same.

            “Oh. Well, what about those ones?” she asked, pointing to sugar cookies coated with brightly coloured royal icing. “Did you make those dyes yourself, to ensure only all natural ingredients were used? I would never want to expose little Bo-coop to anything… unnatural.” She whispered the last word quietly, almost hissing, as if it were a four-letter word. Needless to say, I was surprised by this behavior. And having decorated those cookies yesterday, I knew that we had not made the dye, and the dye almost certainly contained unnatural ingredients. When I let this cat out of the bag, the mother lost it.

            “What kind of place are you running here? Unnatural dyes, non-organic ingredients, and I bet you even used REAL SUGAR! I will only feed my daughter things that are natural and homegrown, including the Canadian super group Nickelback. This is appalling. I can’t even believe that the health department has allowed this establishment to exist. I must report this at once. Next thing you know, you are going to be running around out in front of the counter and trying to give little Bo-coop here vaccines filled with mercury. Shocking. Absolutely shocking.”

            I was flabbergasted, and completely flustered. I had no idea what to do. I was frozen in place like a deer in the headlights, and completely unlike a fart in a jar. Luckily, Alejandro had heard all the commotion out front and was saying something soothing to the woman. While I stood there staring, he grabbed some organic apple sauce out of the fridge.

            “How is this?” he asked.

            “Good. Good,” she said, sounding relieved. “That is much better than these other reckless options that you have. Do people actually feed this to their children? I can’t believe that they could get away with endangering their children like that. Can you give me a list of all your customers who feed this to their children so that I can report them to the Children’s Aid Society?”

            “I can try to work on that for you, Debbie,” Alejandro said soothingly. He had clearly dealt with her before.

            I saw how confidant he was, and how calm she had become. I took my chance to ask a couple of questions. I had many, mainly about the "Fatally attracted to cuteness" T shirt, but I decided that was a bad place to start.

            “Debbie, you have a beautiful little girl there,” I crooned so sweetly I almost gagged. “Bo-coop, is it?”
            “No, Beaucoup,” she corrected with an abysmal French accent. “I named my baby girl Beaucoup, because I wanted her to have “everything”. I had to turn to French to find a word that could truly express all my hopes and dreams for her. I know that for her to have “everything”, I need to be there for her at every moment. I stare at her while she sleeps, and I have for every day of her 1186 days, 3 hours and 22 minutes to make sure she doesn’t stop breathing. I stare at her while she’s awake too, just in case.”

            While Debbie was saying this, she got a crazed, maniacal look in her eyes, and a thin sheen of sweat erupted on her brow. I decided I did not want this discussion to go any further than it had. I had already heard more than enough.