Blood and Silver: First Bite

A Birthday Surprise

Abigail woke up on the morning of her birthday. She saw a new dress laid out on the end of her bed, which she put on. Due to the publicity that the diner had gotten for helping down-on-their-luck young women, there were always plenty of donations coming in from the community. The cash donations went straight to the owner’s pocket, and the staff never saw a cent of them. But he had no use for clothing donations, and occasionally there was something that wasn’t too big or too small, was in good condition, and was enough to make one of these women or their children feel amazing for the day.

This happened to be one of those occasions, and Abigail smiled as she twirled in a beautiful rainbow dress, the skirt swirling around her as she did. She heard her mother in the kitchen and excitedly skipped over to her.

‘Happy Birthday, my sweetheart!’ Laura said, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the forehead. ‘I’m so glad the dress fits; you look beautiful, my angel!’

Abbie smiled. This was the first time she remembered her birthday being on a Sunday and actually being able to spend some time with her mother on her birthday.The diner opened at 12 p.m. on a Sunday, as the owner and his wife went to church. A bit hypocritical, as they were churchgoing people but never lifted a finger to help Laura and Abigail and rather exploited the young mother and guilted her into maintaining her loyalty. Even when Abigail was born at the diner, he took the cleaning bill for the bathroom out of Laura’s pay and expected her to come back to work a week later. Laura never had a bad word to say about his, though, as he had helped her find their apartment as his brother-in-law worked for a rental agency that was looking for a new tenant at the time. It didn’t strike Laura as odd that most of the staff she worked with had had precisely the same luck finding accommodation in the very same apartment complex. He had given Laura an advance on her wages to pay the first month’s rent, which she paid back monthly for several years, which, for a young woman in her first ever job, seemed fair.

Laura had set out a bowl of cereal for Abbie; she often told her that cereal was expensive and breakfast wasn’t that important anyway, so this was a special treat. There was even a mug of ‘special occasion’ hot chocolate on the table. Laura would skim a teaspoon or two of hot chocolate out of the tin at work every few days and keep the powder for birthdays and Christmas.

After breakfast was finished, Laura brought out Abbie’s cupcake. This year, it was a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing swirled on top. It had a single candle on top. ‘Blow it out, quick! We need this candle for next year!’ She said. They had been using the same candle for years, and it was barely a messy nub now, but blowing out the candle was still a treat to young Abigail.

Abigail blew out her candle and made a wish. Her eyes scrunched up, and she held her hands in tight fists as she wished that her mother didn’t have to work so hard and that they could have cereal and hot chocolate every day.

She shared her tiny cupcake with her mother, who then pulled out her gift from behind her back. It was an A4 sheet of paper with an off-brand cartoon picture and three broken crayons. Abigail smiled; she loved coloring in, and this was the perfect gift for her. Laura always felt guilty giving Abigail such mediocre gifts, but Abigail’s sweet face lighting up with delight and gratitude always made her feel better. She, too, wished that she could provide more for Abigail and be able to give her everything she needed and wanted, and she hoped that someday soon her wish would come true.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Laura stood up, confused. ‘Who would come here on a Sunday morning?’ She asked rhetorically. She went to the door, and after taking a look through the peephole, she opened the door and began talking to the man on the doorstep. Abigail couldn’t hear what was being said, but she could hear an unfamiliar man’s voice. After about 5 minutes, Laura walked back into the room holding a large, brown envelope.

‘Who was that, mom?’ Abigail asked.

‘It was a private investigator; he said that it was very important that I get this envelope before the end of the week, and he was hired to find me.’ Laura replied.

Abigail motioned to the envelope. ‘So what’s in there, mom?’ She asked.

‘I'm not sure, honey,' Laura replied. ‘Apparently, my aunt Hazel passed away and left us something; it’s probably nothing. I haven’t seen her since before you were born, so she’s probably giving me her old records or some crap. I bet she thinks I forgot about her, but I’ve had no way to get into contact..." her voice trailed off, an air of sadness echoing through.

‘Open it, mom!’ Abbie urged.

With a sigh, Laura opened the envelope. The first piece of paper that she pulled out was a death certificate, starting her aunt’s date of death from a week before.

‘Oh, she had cancer.’ Said Laura. ‘I didn’t even know.’ She sighed, the sadness in her voice coming through stronger. She was the only person in Laura’s family who understood her, and had she been able to get hold of her aunt after finding out that she was pregnant, she had no doubt that her aunt would have taken them in and given them a much better life than the one they had.

She pulled out the next document, which was her aunt’s will. She started reading through it, the expression on her face changing to something that Abbie couldn’t quite understand.

‘What does it say, mom? Is it something cool?’

Her mother looked at her with an expression of disbelief.

‘It says that she is leaving us her house. But we aren’t allowed to sell it or rent it out; we have to move in within 1 month of her passing. That’s 3 weeks from now. If we don’t move in, then it will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to her local cat shelter.’

Abigail looked at her mother with excitement.

‘We’re moving?’ She asked, her voice pitching upward with her excitement.

‘I don’t know, honey. It’s a lot to do in 3 weeks, and what about my jobs? But not paying rent and having our own rooms would be nice. But it’s 4 hours away, and Auntie Hazel lived in a really weird little town. I don’t know. I don’t know what to do!’

Laura let out a whimper, and a single tear rolled down her face. This was a big decision for a 24-year-old with no one except the young daughter she was responsible for. It was all too overwhelming, and the fact that she had no one to help and guide her or be able to comfort her over the loss of the single family member that could have helped her made it all the more difficult.