Technically Invisible

“Cake, Anyone??”

I sat down with my Writer’s Notebook in hand, ready to tell my 3rd grade class about the time that I ate the whole middle out of my Mom’s cake that she was bringing to church.  Before I even started, I knew I had gotten their interest….

The smell of cinnamony sweetness wafted from the kitchen.  My mouth was watering as I called out “Mum, what are you baking??”

I hoped with all my heart and stomach that the cake would be for our dessert.  As luck would have it, my mom yelled back happily from upstairs “It’s for my church meeting tonight, I’ve put it on the counter to cool while I get ready.  Suzy, will you make sure Shadow doesn’t leap on the counter and nibble on it?”

“Sure, Mum!” I yelled back up the stairs.  From where I sat in the family room, I heard the bathroom door “click” and the shower came on.

Before I knew it, I was in the kitchen, staring at that beautiful streusel cake.  Every January 21^st my mom made streusel cake for my birthday.  Every January 21^st I looked forward to eating every last morsel on my plate, while it was still warm from the oven.  Oh, how I wished it were January 21^st today!

I tiptoed to the counter….  That warm, moist vanilla cake was covered in a buttery, cinnamon topping, and smothered in a vanilla streusel drizzle.  My mouth was watering when I noticed some vanilla streusel had dripped on the counter, so I reached out my finger and swabbed it up.  The streusel was so sweet on my tongue I couldn’t help but reach out and swipe some off of the edge of the plate.

“Mmmmmmm……”  I said out loud as I licked my finger.  As I heard the shower running overhead, I quickly used my now sticky, licky finger to swab up every last drip of streusel off the whole plate.

“OOOOOOO” I heard a couple of students breathe as they heard about what I was doing to that frosting…..  I bet that they would have been tempted to do the same thing….

Wow.  Before I knew it, the extra frosting was all gone, and I started wondering what the cake tasted like….

It wasn’t long before I started lifting the cake up off the cooling rack, and reaching underneath to pinch out pieces of warm vanilla goodness.  Pinch after pinch after pinch after pinch after pinch, I gobbled each bite from underneath the cake.

Before I knew it, I had eaten a hole out of the bottom of that cake that was as big around as an orange.  To be honest, I don’t even know how the cake was still standing up!!

“Mrs. Brooks!” One of my students gasped – “Why did you DO that???” I giggled a little and kept reading….

I started to get that panicky feeling deep inside me that I always felt when I knew I made a bad decision.  My heart beat faster and my hands shook as I heard the shower turn off.  “Uh Oh!”, I thought to myself…..

“SUZY???” My mom yelled from the top of the stairs.  I gulped and then managed to squeak out a pitiful “Yes, Mum???”

“Could you do me a favor and cover the cake with Saran Wrap for me?  I’m running late.”

<<Phew!!>>  “Sure, Mum!”, I yelled back.

After securing the cake, I ran back to the family room and sat glued to the couch. As I heard my mom come down the stairs, and head to the kitchen, I knew what I should do.  I should tell her that the middle of her cake was missing.  That I had eaten most of it, and the church ladies would have a hollow snack that night.   Inside my head, I could hear my voice trying to get out — but it never did.  I silently sat as she packed up her belongings and headed out the door.  By the time I drummed up the courage to tell her, she was long-gone, on her way to church…. with that holey cake.

As I closed my notebook, and looked at the group of wide-eyed third graders, I began to smile.  That was the end of my story.  As the realization that my story was going to leave them all hanging, my students started calling out…..  “What happened?”  “Did you get in trouble?” “What did your mom say???”.   I gave them a big grin, as I wasn’t about to give away the ending….

Why didn’t I give away the ending?  Well, because that’s all I remembered!  Here I am, teaching my third grade authors to write about things they remember clearly – and I could not remember for the life of me how it ended!!!!   Did I get in trouble?  Did I fess up?  Did my mom call the house?  Was I punished?  I just couldn’t remember.

For 2 weeks, my students helped me try to write different endings to my story — because I was having such a hard time remembering what actually happened….  Though all the endings were creative, none of them really seemed to fit.

That is, until one day, when Miss Sally (my mom) volunteered in the classroom.  I heard a student asking her — “Miss Sally, what did you do when Mrs. Brooks ate the middle out of your cake???”  The look on my mom’s face was priceless – she had NO IDEA what the kids were talking about.  We were all now focused on Mrs. Sally as I tried to remind her of the Cake Eating Incident.  It took a couple of minutes, but then all of a sudden, her face went from clouded and confused to crystal clear.

“I do remember a night that I brought a cake to church that had the bottom missing….  I thought it had just stuck to the pan!!!”  My mom laughed as she fully realized that I had eaten the middle out of her altar guild cake.  We all laughed along with her, because my students and I realized that I had just found the perfect ending to my personal narrative.

I can say that I never did again eat the middle out of anyone else’s cake.  Even though I was really never caught, I hated the feeling I had when I knew I had done something wrong.  Streusel Cake is still my favorite, and my mom still makes it for me.  No streusel cake will ever be as memorable to me as that particular one was, though.

Who wants a slice??