Birds chirps in the pine trees as the sun rises above the treeline, illuminating the small town. A young teen opens up her window as she welcomes the fresh air that smells of fresh pine needles. She lowers the blind as she puts on her favorite white shirt and jeans, and completes her day's outfit with her red hoodie her mom had made for her when she was just a small baby, every couple of months Granny resizes it, so it's kind of like the hoodie grows as she grows.
She pulls up the blinds once more and looks off in the distance, the edge of the forest to the left and to the right, the town she has called home all her life. She's interrupted when she hears a phone ring in the distance. She goes over to her nightstand and grabs her phone. It's not hers that's ringing. The ringing then stops and mumbling can be heard coming from the hall.
She walks into the hall, sliding along the pink velvet carpet with her socks. She looks to the left through a doorway into the living room and kitchen, no one's there. She then hears a voice coming from Granny's room. It sounds weaker than normal, and a bit raspy. Full of curiosity, she puts her ear up to the door.
"I don't need to go to the hospital, it's nothing more than a cold, and I ain't that old yet. And what about Red?" There's a pause, "I'm, not, having her stay at your house, I know how messy you are and I don't want her picking up any of those habits. No, you can't come here everyday, you're just gonna eat all our food and she's gonna starve to death cause of your bottomless stomach, plus you wouldn't be able to be here for more than a few minutes during the week days," Another pause, this one lasted for a minute or so, "No, absolutely not," She says with a raised voice, but then coughs, "I'm not leaving her with him. Okay I'm hanging up, goodbye," Red waits a second before knocking on the door.
"Granny? You up?" There's a cough.
"Yes Red, you can come in," She opens up the door to find Granny sitting up in her giant fluffy bed, several hand made bed sheets of different colors ranging from blue to pink stacked on top of her, with another one wrapped around her shoulders. Despite all the blankets she still looks cold.
"Everything alright Granny?"
"Oh, I think I've come down with a cold," She coughs into the blanket, "Could you be a dearie and make me some chicken noodle soup?" She asks with a sweet smile.
"Of course Granny,"
"Thanks sweetie," She says as Red heads out to the kitchen. She rummages through the almost empty shiny dark brown cabinets and finds a can. She makes it, pours it into a bowl, and grabs a mitten to rest it on as she brings it to Granny.
"Thank you," She says happily taking the soup. She scoops up a spoonful, blows on it, then tastes the soup, "Mm, this is really good, what's your secret?" Red laughs a little.
"Granny, it's just soup from a can nothing special."
"Oh no dearie," She takes another spoonful, "This doesn't taste like any ordinary canned soup. I think you're starting to get that special touch every cook in our family has,"
"Special touch?"
"The special touch of love. It's how I'm able to make such delicious treats that taste better than they normally would. It can be used to make even the worst of foods taste better than a five course meal,"
"Do you think I really have that?" Red asks, eyes full of amazement.
"It seems so, but, it takes time to truly master it, so don't expect everything you cook to taste amazing right now, you have to give it time and keep practicing."
"Alright,"
"Speaking of cooking, I think we're starting to get low on food. I'm too sick to leave the house though…" She says tapping the spoon against her lower lip.
"I could make a list and head into town," Red suggests. Granny stops tapping her spoon,
"I've gone with you all these years, and I'm fourteen now, I'm sure I can do some grocery shopping alone."
"Hm," She slowly stirs the soup with her spoon, "Only if you promise to stay out of the woods and-"
"I promise,"
"And, while you're getting the groceries you also get whatever ingredients you need to make me that special cake of yours I heard you talking about all the time."
"What?" Red asks in surprise, "I only just tried a scratch recipe, and I haven't even started making a second one yet." She whines.
"Then I guess I'll just call up a friend," She goes to grab her phone.
"No!" She shouts, "I-I can make the cake for you," She says nervously.
"Okay," Granny says. She reaches into her nightstand and pulls out her wallet, "Here you go, be sure to come back before lunch time, ya hear?"
"I will," She replies.
"Alright, don't spend too much while you're out,"
"I won't" She says heading for her room. She grabs her basket off her drawer.
"Call me if you need anything Granny," Red says as she heads out the door.
The cool morning air greets her as she practically jumps with excitement. She pulls out the list Granny made for her than takes out her phone to look at the recipe she's been working on the past week and a half.
"Maybe I should talk with Sheran, she could help me make a test one with the updated recipe," She says to herself, "The last one was very salty, and not very sweet, or cake like…" Although she's confident in her baking skills, she's not so confident about her ability to make recipes like her granny.
"Morning Red. Where's Granny?" A man on a ladder asks.
"Morning Mister Mayor. She's sick, so I'm gonna go shopping for her." A store owner flipping the open/closed sign greets her.
"Good morning Red, where you off to?"
"I'm heading to Sheran's, Granny wants me to make her something special."
"I'm sure she's going to love it,"
As Red reaches Sheran's she smiles to see Sheran in her white shirt, pants and pink apron flipping the closed sign to open. Red walks past the small picket fence lining the outside area and past all the tables and chairs. A small bell chimes as she enters the bakery, the smell of baking bread and sugar filling her nose.
"Well, good morning Red," She says greeting her with a warm smile.
"Morning Sheran," She says nervous and hesitant to ask her for help.
"Where's Granny?"
"Granny's sick, so I'm getting groceries,"
"Oh dear, that's not good. Are you feeling alright too, you didn't catch anything too did you?"
"I'm fine. I uh, made a deal that if she let me get the groceries on my own that..." She grabs her left arm with her right, "I'd cook her a cake I've been working on," Sheran is filled with sudden excitement.
"You made a recipe of your own?"
"Y-yeah?"
"That's wonderful!" She says giving Red a hug, "Have you baked a test one yet?" She asks as she lets her go.
"Yeah," She looks to the side, "But it was really salty, and didn't really taste too sweet…I was hoping you'd be able to help me with the recipe."
"Well of course! Come on," She gestures Red to follow her to the kitchen, "Show me what you have so far," Red pulls up the recipe and hands her phone to her.
"Hm, salted caramel, cocoa, eggs, milk, flour, vegetable oil. The ingredients you're using work good together, but the rations could use a little work. We definitely need to reduce the amount of caramel, and add some sugar to the list," She grabs a little notepad and pencil and starts writing down on it, "Let's see maybe add an egg, one less scoop of cocoa, and half the vegetable oil,"
"Um, if Granny is sick, maybe making this one with caramel wouldn't be good idea?"
"Hm," She taps the eraser of the pencil against her cheek, "Well we could remove it but then it's just chocolate cake…"
"Well, I'm fine with just making chocolate cake,"
"Are you sure?" Red nods, "Alright then." The front door bell chimes, "Oh, that's probably Randy, I almost forgot today is Monday," And she heads out to the front counter, Red following.
Randy, an older man with short white hair and a small scruffy beard, walks up to the counter.
"Morning Randy, the usual?" Sheran asks with a warm smile.
"Mmhm," He says with a nod. He notices Red standing at Sheran's side, "Red, what brings you here so early in the morning?" He asks.
"I'm doing grocery shopping by myself since Granny is sick,"
"That's surprising, especially after the talk I had with her this morning…" He says scratching his beard.
"But, what are you doing here?" Red asks, "I thought you hate anything sweet."
"Oh, I do," He says, "I come here every Monday to buy yer dad some donuts since he's the hardest working employee I have, and normally skips breakfast to work more. He certainly loves chocolate, you should see his face whenever I bring him a donut glazed in it," He says with a laugh. Then his expression becomes grossed out, "I don't get how you guys can stand the taste so much,"
Red is taken back a bit. She's never seen her dad's face, so she can't imagine what that would look like in the slightest except a faceless smile. She's also baffled at the thought of how someone could looked so grossed out from just talking about sweet foods.
"Randy." Sheran says sternly.
"What?" He looks at Red who's just staring at the donuts Shern is putting in a bag, "Oh, sorry Red."
"Don't worry about it," She says, snapping out of her thoughts, "Could you...tell him, I say hi?"
"Of course,"
"Here you go," Sheran says handing him the bag.
"Thanks," He pulls out his wallet. As he takes out some cash and gives it to Sheran he notices something. He looks at his wallet for a bit, then glances at Red, "I know your old lady would kill me if she found out I gave you this. "But I think you're grown enough to make your own decision," He pulls out a worn piece of paper from his wallet and holds it out towards Red face down, "It's a picture of me and your father, you're welcome to take it if ya want, just make sure Granny don't see you with it," Red looks at the piece of paper mystified as if what was in his hand was something ancient and highly valuable.
She takes the picture and flips it over to reveal a picture of two men standing with an arm over the other's shoulder, with a sawmill in the background. Randy looks the same, with his hearty smile and beard. The man standing with him, who must be her father, is a much younger man, stubble going down the side of his face, over his chin, and around his mouth. His black hair, wild and crazy, sticking out from under a red and black trapper hat. His clothes are nearly identical to Randy's so it must have been taken at work. Seeing the smile and happiness on her dad's face even if it's in a photo, warms her heart.
"Thank you," She says looking up at him with a smile before hugging him.
"No problem kiddo," He says patting her head, "See ya later Sheran," He says as he starts to walk out, "Be sure to hide it well, Granny's got an eye for out of place things," He warns, pointing at the picture. Red nods with a smile and he takes his leave, the bell chiming once more.
Red turns to Sheran with sudden excitement.
"Maybe I could make a cake for my dad!" She nearly shouts, "And then, next Monday I could go with Randy and give it to him!" Sheran looks at her a bit worried.
"Red, your Granny wouldn't be too happy with you if you did that, the sawmill is quite a ways off into the forest,"
"Well, only if she's still sick Monday, that way she'll never know, I can just tell her I'm going to do some shopping or to the pet store for sight seeing,"
"I know I shouldn't let you but," She glances at Red's pleading face, "Come on, let's go work on that cake. After trying the recipe Sheran had given her the cake tasted a million times better than her recipe to her relief. She left the store and headed off to get the groceries. She started daydreaming what it would be like to see her dad for the first time as she carried her basket and other bags of groceries back home.
As she approaches the house she pulls out the photo one last time.
Would he be happy to see me if I came unexpected? What if he doesn't like the cake I bake for him? What kind of cake does he like?
Then she gets an idea. Maybe she could ask around town the next couple of days, as long as Granny is too sick to leave home, and could also work on the cake recipe with caramel all week since he's not sick and should be able to have caramel. Filled with a new determination she puts the photo in her pocket and rushes into the house.
The sounds of saws buzzing echoes through the trees for miles, scaring away any animals that might have been nearby before. A man in a red and black plaid shirt, and dark blue jeans walks up to a tree, chainsaw in hand. He flips a small switch and it roars to life. He gets a good fourth of the way through the tree trunk when he sees Randy walking over to him. He backs the chainsaw out from the tree and turns it off, taking off his earmuffs.
"How many trees you cut down already Jerard?" Randy asks.
"This'll be my fourth," He replies, putting the chainsaw down.
"You never seem to give yourself a break do ya?" He hands him the bag.
"If I do you won't buy me donuts every Monday," He says, taking one out and smiling at the shine given off from the chocolate glaze before taking a bite.
"Of course," He replies with a chuckle, "Oh yeah, I saw Red today in the bakery, she told me to tell you she said hi." Jerard seems a bit surprised, a finishes chewing his bite.
"That's, good to hear..." He says with a mixed look of happy and sad, "How is she?"
"She's doing just fine, always cheerful and filling the room she's in with joy. I hope you don't mind too much that I gave her a picture of you" Randy says scratching the back of his head, "She looked awfully happy to see your face for the first time, maybe you should go take a day off sometime and go see her?"
"...We both know Granny would never let me," He says, putting the donut he was eating back into the bag and rolling the top of it shit, "Thanks for the donuts," He says, trying to cover a sudden shame with a smile, "Could you move off to the side? I don't want to get splinters all over you," He asks as he picks up the chainsaw.
"Of course, I'll leave ya to your work, keep it up," Randy says as he walks off towards the sawmill.
"Will do," Jerard says as he puts the earmuffs back on and starts cutting through the tree once more.