Repose

Children's choir practice. Hours have changed from Saturday morning 10-11 to Monday thru Thursday evening, 5-8. Chronic attendance mandatory.

[The day after this discussion, a cake box is dropped off at Sonrisa. There is a small card envelope taped to the top, addressed to Sam, and inside the envelope, the note says "As requested. Have fun with the plastic trees. -Iris"

The cake box is huge, about two feet by three feet, and several inches deep, and inside is a giant sheet cake (marble, if the sticker on the cover is to be believed). It's been frosted in light green, with frosting trees piped on it, arranged in at least a dozen star-bursts, with the trunks inward and leaves outward, and where they meet seems to be the perfect spot for tiny plastic trees. In one corner, in the darker green icing that matches the trees' leaves, in very careful script about an inch high, it says "Happy Birthday".

Later in the day, once the batch is out of the oven, she drops off a fresh loaf of sourdough bread, still warm, wrapped in a white flour-sack style towel and then put in a paper bag.]

[Delivery to the Forest Ranger Office (Shane & Aubrey)]
[One huge birthday cake. It's covered in plastic trees, even where the baker didn't intend any to go, and beneath the very pretty "Happy Birthday" there's a messy ", asshole!" in yellow icing.]

[Delivery to Crust & Crumb (Iris)]
[One of her works in progress. It's missing a few stitches, but generally looks pretty good. The note attached includes payment for the cake (in cash) and, "thanks, baby," in messy scrawl.]

[Locked to Jude C]
This might be considered meddling, but I wanted to let you know that if you want to go with Sasha? I won't begrudge you. In fact? Getting a theater going is going to require more staff than my tiny little bar does. If you want to help her while she prepares (or after), you have my blessing.

Some multi-syllabic assistance might come in handy on her first business venture.

[text to cris m.]

Back, finally. Sorry I've been hard to reach. Catch up?

[locked to eddie n.]

What's the post-dating policy on that ticket? [...] Sorry I didn't respond. I was [...] back home.

[locked to selina c.]

Am I the worst? I'm probably the worst. Tell me things are okay.

[locked to elan l.]

I'm back. [...] Not that you didn't know that, let's be real.

[locked to sasha j.]

The town hasn't burned down since I've been gone, so I'm guessing you weren't on your worst behavior.