Cupcakes

by Karen Baddeley

I was probably 8 years old and my family and I had just moved to Nebraska from Iowa. My mom was always really worried that I wouldn't make friends because I was so quiet and shy. So she decided that in order to make friends, I had to start going to Sunday School at a Methodist Church. We never went to church before and I wasn't baptized, but I guess they'll take anyone. Anyway, my mom was a primary school teacher at that time, so she had all these weird recipes for children. She decided that not only did I have to go to Sunday School, but that I also had to make treats for the other kids. The recipe she chose was something called "Fortune Cupcakes." They were like fortune cookies, only with cupcakes. You were supposed to put little slips of paper in them with fortunes, but my mom said to write bible verses and stuff like "Jesus Loves You." It was all weird. We were not religious. Also, my mom is a horrible cook. But we made them. We put them on a plate and put Saran Wrap over them. We were also running late, that was typical, so my mom was screaming at me to get ready and get in the car. "Get in the Goddamn car! Jesus Christ hurry up!" She really did say that. So I was running from the door to the car carrying the cupcakes and I slipped on a piece of dog poop that was on the sidewalk. I fell face first into the concrete and the cupcakes went everywhere and I skinned my knee and ripped my tights. My mom was still yelling at me and told me to just pick up the cupcakes and put them back on the tray, so I did. We get to church (she just dropped me off) and I went to Sunday School. I guess I just started passing the cupcakes out to the kids, I don't remember. The kids were biting into the cupcakes and saying "Ewww, there's paper in them!"

I guess you were supposed to leave the slips of paper sticking out a bit. But I'd worried that they'd burn.


Karen Baddeley is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at The City College of New York. Originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, this is her first published fiction. She is currently working on a novella.