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“Psst, hey.” Lulu is sitting on a barstool behind the counter at the pie shop and swivels to face Dawn, eyeing her conspiratorially. “You know it’s my mom’s birthday on Saturday, right?”
Of course Dawn knows. She has the color-coded calendar to prove it. Still, she mock-gasps “no!” because she knows it’ll make Lulu giggle, and it does. Lulu is eleven now, but Dawn hopes she’ll never tire of her Auntie Dawn’s antics.
Just like every day after school, Lulu is in the pie shop kitchen with them, helping out with baking the desserts. Jenna just went to get some customers’ orders, so they have a couple of minutes to themselves.
“I think we should throw her a surprise party. She told me last night that she’s never had one, and I think a life without surprise parties is just really sad,” Lulu says. She’s pouting a little, though Dawn thinks it’s mostly for effect.
Dawn smiles. She can’t deny Lulu anything, and she loves a good scheme. “That’s an excellent idea. Truly wonderful! You should rope Becky in, too. She’ll want to be a part of this.”
“Of course,” Lulu says. She reaches for her school backpack next to her and takes out a purple notebook and a gel pen, and opens her notebook to a new page. “We need decorations. And cake, obviously. I can make it.” Lulu starts writing things down as she’s listing off things they’ll need. “We’ve got plates and stuff here, but we’ll have to bring in some balloons.”
Dawn can’t help but feel old at the fact that Lulu, tiny, fragile Lulu, whom Dawn swears she held in her arms as a newborn mere months and not eleven years ago, can apparently bake cakes without help now. Mistress time, she is cruel and unforgiving.
“We can have the party at the pie shop. Mom goes to the farmer’s market every Saturday morning for those strawberries from up north, so we can set it up then. We’ll just use one corner of the shop so people can still come and eat.”
“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?” Dawn asks, and tries her best to school her face to remain cool and collected, and to not explode at Lulu with a metaphorical cannon of joy and delight like she actually wants to.
“Yeah. I just need a way to get here. Mom isn’t going to let me bike alone all this way, and what would I be doing at the pie shop without her here anyway?”
“You’re right. Do you want to come over for a sleepover Friday night? Maggie would love to see you.” Dawn’s seven-year old daughter Margaret adores Lulu, who’s like a cool, older cousin to her. “And that way, we can all come over together in the morning. You can also bake your cake over at ours, without your mom seeing,” Dawn says in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Oh, good idea. Maggie can help me decorate it,” Lulu says.
“She’ll love that.” Dawn smiles. She’s so happy that Lulu also adores Maggie, and wants her around. Dawn will treasure it for as long as she can, with Lulu slowly getting to be that age where seven-year olds aren’t the coolest people to spend a Friday night with anymore. Though Lulu, kind and patient beyond her years, may not end up being your typical teenager anyway.
Becky takes that moment to come back into the kitchen, which means it’s Dawn’s turn to go back out towards the tables.
“Hey, Becky,” Dawn whispers to her on her way out. “Lulu needs to talk to you.”
“Okay, so…” she hears Lulu start before they’re out of earshot.
—
With the excuse of Maggie wanting to see her favorite cousin, Jenna seems to be none the wiser when she drops Lulu off at Dawn and Ogie’s house Friday night.
Dawn pours herself a glass of sparkling cider and settles in at the dining room table to vaguely supervise Lulu and Maggie. Lulu really is a great baker, though, and knows what she’s doing already. Like mother, like daughter.
Lulu decided on chocolate fudge cake – not from the box, that’s for beginners, Dawn – and is currently adding eggs into her butter-sugar mix.
Maggie is her sous-chef, and she’s really very cute. Occasionally, Dawn hears Lulu go, “I need the eggs, Maggie,” or, “could you please grab me the vanilla extract, Maggie,” and Maggie is only too eager to help. Dawn is grateful Maggie and Lulu have each other. As neither of them have actual siblings, they’re the closest thing they’ve got, and they’ve mostly always gotten along swimmingly.
Once the cake is in the oven, Lulu asks Dawn to set a timer and then heads off to play Labyrinth with Maggie.
Becky walks into Dawn’s kitchen and immediately reaches for the bottle of Chardonnay Dawn keeps in her fridge for when Jenna and Becky are over, then joins Dawn at the dining room table.
“Normally I’d feel guilty about leaving Jenna out of this cute little hang, but it’s for a good cause,” Becky says as she puts her wine glass down. “Let’s do this,” Becky says, and opens a green box filled with photos on Dawn’s table.
Dawn figures her admittedly slightly old-school tendencies come in handy sometimes, because they mean she still gets most of her photos printed. Dawn had asked Becky to come over to help her make a photo collage for Jenna’s surprise party. The box contains stacks of photos of them taken in the last fifteen or so years, and Dawn took them out for the two of them to go through and hopefully find some gems.
“Oh my god look, this is when you were pregnant with Maggie,” Becky says, cooing over a photo of her, Jenna, and Becky in pajamas, piled on Jenna’s ratty old couch. Dawn remembers that night. Her ankles were incredibly sore and she hadn’t been in a good mood, but Becky and Jenna had basically browbeaten her into coming over to Jenna’s, where they fussed over her, Jenna made Dawn her famous split pea soup – Dawn’s favorite – and they were laughing all night about some silly reality TV show. Dawn has long since forgotten which one it was, but that part isn’t important. Her enduring friendship with these women and the way they’ll still, to this day, drop everything to be there for her is.
“Hey Becky,” Dawn says, and giggles. “Look at this one.” She pulls out a picture of them at a Halloween party two or three years ago, all of them dressed in Wizard of Oz-themed costumes. Jenna was Dorothy, Dawn was the scarecrow, Becky was the lion. They’re all cheesing for the camera and it makes Dawn happy every time she looks at it.
“We were rocking those costumes,” Becky says, grinning, and puts the photo aside. They both keep looking through the stack.
“Wow, look at this photo, right after Lulu was born,” Dawn says, pointing at a picture of them in the hospital room, tiny Lulu in Jenna’s arms, and Becky and Dawn gathered around her bed. Ogie took the photo for them and it’s one of Dawn’s absolute favorites.
“Hard to imagine she was ever that small,” Becky says wistfully. “I love that kid.”
“You and me both.”
As if on cue, the timer beeps and Lulu reappears.
“Careful with the hot oven,” Dawn warns. Dawn can’t help but worry; it’s in her nature. Lulu rolls her eyes at Dawn, for good measure.
“I know, Aunt Dawn. I’ve made like four cakes this year alone and it’s only March.”
This much is true – despite the pie diner being named for her, Lulu hasn’t inherited her mother’s penchant for pies. She has, however, become a passionate cakemaker over the past few months, and she’s actually good, especially for an eleven-year old. The baking gene really seems to run in the family. Dawn still worries, though. She’s still a kid after all, and ovens are so big and hot.
“You’ve got to forgive your Aunt Dawn, we all know she’s a scaredy-cat,” Becky adds. Then she turns to Dawn. “You know she’s our Star Baker,” she says, pointing at Lulu with a wink.
“Okay, okay, you’ve clearly got this,” Dawn says, taking a deep breath. If she says it, she might believe it, instead of conjuring up whatever worst case scenario her brain can come up with. Becky pats her on the arm, then pulls her in for a sideways hug, and it does help, a little.
Fortunately, Lulu gets the cake out without any issues, and Dawn feels like she can breathe again.
—
“Ogie, I need you to put these over on the table on the left, and hang the banner over it, please,” Becky says, and hands Ogie a bouquet of flowers and a colorful ‘happy birthday’ banner.
“On it!” Ogie jumps on a chair immediately with flourish, and Dawn can’t help but shoot him a grin. He’s so great, and she loves him more and more each day.
Dawn shakes herself out of it. Right now, she has a party to set up; she can daydream about her husband later.
“Lulu, the cake is all set?” she asks.
The cake turned out great, if Dawn says so herself. She had offered to help Lulu out with the frosting, but Lulu was adamant that she could do it by herself, and she was right. Maggie was allowed to add sprinkles to the cake and she went a little overboard, but the end result was pretty spectacular for two kids. Jenna will be over the moon.
“Yeah. I’ll go on the lookout now,” Lulu says, and hides just past the door, where she can see out the window, but no one outside can see her.
Dawn walks over to alert their three tables of regulars to what they’re doing, and to offer them coffee and cake in the house for some longer waits. Fortunately, they all know Jenna after having come in for years, and are only too happy to be present for Jenna’s birthday festivities.
“Mom’s coming,” Lulu warns after a few minutes, and they all get in position, hiding behind the counter so only the birthday display is visible.
Jenna comes in and immediately seems to notice something’s off, probably because it is eerily quiet in the shop. Once she spots the ‘happy birthday’ banner, though, and they’re all jumping out and yelling surprise at her, Dawn is so very glad they managed to pull this off.
Jenna jumps in surprise, but her shock is immediately replaced by a brilliant smile that lights up the room in a way Dawn thinks she’s maybe never seen before. Definitely not for a long time. Jenna is certainly happier now than she was a decade ago, even if she hasn’t always had an easy go of it as a single mother, but Dawn still doesn’t think she’s ever seen her friend smile so wide, or looked at her with so much pure joy in her eyes.
“You guys,” Jenna says, looking around at all of them as her eyes fill with tears. “You did this for me?”
“It was your daughter’s idea, and we were all too happy to go along with it,” says Becky.
“You did all this?” Jenna turns to Lulu. “How?” Jenna sounds like she’s completely in awe of her daughter, but Dawn catches a glimpse of Jenna’s face and knows her expression means, you’re the best kid in the world, but also, how are you growing up so fast?
“I had a lot of help,” Lulu says, bashful, and blushes.
“The cake is all her, though,” Becky says, and Jenna only then seems to notice the colorful cake on the table. She gasps.
“Wow, Lulu. This is amazing. Your best one yet for sure.” Jenna says, and Lulu preens. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hugs Lulu first. “I love you to the moon and back, darling girl,” she says into her shoulder, wiping a tear behind Lulu’s back.
“I love you too, momma.” Lulu is smiling, but Dawn swears Lulu sounds a little choked up, too.
“I love you both, too,” Jenna says as she disentangles from the hug with her daughter and immediately wraps her arms around both Becky and Dawn at once. “This is amazing. I can’t thank you enough.”
“That’s what best friends are for,” Becky says, and Dawn nods.
“Our pleasure,” Dawn says, and really means it. Jenna deserves the world, always. This is the least they could give her for all the things, both big and small, that Jenna does to make other people’s lives better every day, and for the love she puts out into the world.
It seems only right that Jenna gets to feel that kind of love on her birthday, too.