Jude
1161 Words
It’s Saturday morning, I’ve been up for hours now. The music is playing on my Bluetooth speaker, my hips are shaking to the beat, my hands covered in dough, flour, oil, frosting, my kitchen for that matter too.
I’m making Lemon blueberry cupcakes, chocolate zucchini bread, and Lemon Danishes. I place the last Danish in the bakery box, do a quick clean-up, and head towards the soup kitchen, excited to see Jude a five-year-old little boy. I meet him last week, the first time I dropped off some baked goods. He was there with his dad and I knew we’d be friends the instant I watched his entire face light up at the sight of gooey goodness.
Every little kid deserves sweets. Seeing him so excited, knowing he’s going through something so hard broke my heart like it always does when I’m in places like this. A reminder that I may have had it bad but I still didn’t have it as bad as it could have been.
When I snooped, too curious and worried not to I found out his dad lost his job a few months back. Their savings were gone in what seemed like an instant. Soon after, they were evicted from their apartment forced, to live in their car. For weeks now that little boy and his poor father have been living in their car while I go to work serving people with enough money to fix all these people’s problems.
My heart hurts for the two of them, so when Jude smiled up at me with his pudgy cheeks and squeaky voice, I couldn’t help but promise I would make him a chocolate dessert. After thinking about it I figured zucchini bread was the best option. Get Jude to eat some veggies well enjoy something truly delicious.
It's five minutes after they open by the time, I arrive arms full of goodies. Paul is the first to see me, grabbing the two boxes on top. He’s an older man, late fifties, with gray hair, a face that tells a story full of wrinkles and laugh lines. He’s the director of this location, the kindest man I think I’ve ever met. “Thank you! How are you today?”
“Great! I have to tell you Aria, you’re spoiling everyone here, all they talk about nowadays is when you’ll be bringing the next batch in!”
“I’ll have to bring in some more often than!” I love to bake, it’s my therapy, my thing, so I do it frequently, too frequently to ever eat everything I make. Having it go bad, throwing it away, they aren’t options, not when all these people could use a little pick me up.
“Ohhh, I didn’t mean it like that, you’re already bringing something every other day it seems, I just wanted to tell you how grateful we are. How much everyone really enjoys everything you make.”
“I’m happy to hear that, I’ll be bringing as much as I can as frequently as I can. I love baking, I also love seeing the smile it brings to people’s faces.” We set the boxes down next to the end of the breakfast food line up, there’s already a line almost reaching the door waiting to be served. A few people shout a greeting, I wave back not remembering everyone’s names just yet.
“Miss Aria, Miss Aria!” I see a little speck of black hair bouncing up to the counter. I make my way towards him, crouching to his level when I reach him. Extending my fist he knocks his with mine, Pulling away we both open our fists, spreading our fingers wide as we both say “make it explode.” A little greeting he showed me the first time we meet.
“Hey Jude, did you learn any new tricks with your Frisbee?” They don’t have much but his dad is good about finding soccer balls and Frisbees to keep Jude out of the hot car and keep his mind off the situation they find themselves in.
I saw them playing in the alley next to the building out of the sun when I was leaving Monday. They were both smiling big, flinging the Frisbee at each other trying to out trick the other. It was heartwarming to witness, someone so down on his luck, still making it a point to make his son's life as enjoyable as possible.
Jude’s dad cared more about his little boy than my dad ever showed me. I’m happy for them, it’s just hard to realize that I missed out on so much when my father decided drinking was more important than his daughter.
“Yep! I can catch it from behind my back, I have to twist just like this,” Jude jumps up and spins, his little fist almost clocking me in the face, making me fall backward, smacking my head against the corner of the counter. Ow, that stings. Rubbing the bump on the back of my head I stand, Jude not even noticing my fall, too busy showing me how he grabs the Frisbee right from behind his back.
Oh man, he’s cute.
“Wow that is an amazing movie, you had to work hard to master that, huh?”
“Yup, me and Dad practiced for a whole day! Then we went for a swim in the creek! There’s even this one spot where the creek bends around, like a snake. The water goes super-fast! It gets deep too! My dad couldn’t even touch the bottom!”
“Jude that sounds like so much fun! Next time you go you should look under rocks for crayfish!”
“Crayfish? What are they?”
“They’re like little mini Lobsters, have you ever seen a Lobster?”
“Oh yea, we always check them out in the grocery store! They like it when I say Hi!”
“I bet they look forward to your visit!”
“I miss them, we haven’t seen them in forty-sixty years!”
“Forty-sixty years! That’s a long time! They will be there when you get back there, waiting for you! Just imagine how awesome that day will be. Guess what I made for you Jude!” His big muddy brown eyes shine bright with excitement, the missing Lobsters already forgotten.
“I’ll be right back.” Quick as I can I grab the zucchini bread I put to the side. “Here you go, try a piece of this. You’re going to love it, save some for your dad too!”
“Yummy! I’m gunna ask daddy if I can have some!” Just like that little Jude is gone, lost to the thrill of chocolate. I spend the next two hours serving, talking, and cleaning along with some really awesome humans, wishing the whole time I could do something about little Jude’s situation.
- Writer
