Chapter 2
837 Words
By midday, the bakery was alive.
The bell above the door rang every few minutes, letting in waves of people escaping the cold. The air was warm, thick with sugar and coffee, voices overlapping into a soft hum that usually made Maya feel… settled.
Today, it didn’t.
“Can I get two slices of banana bread?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Maya cut into one of the loaves, the knife gliding smoothly through the golden crust. Steam still rose faintly from the center. Perfect, like always.
She wrapped the slices, rang the order up, handed it off with a small smile.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Same exchange. Same rhythm.
Over and over.
Carla moved beside her, quicker, a little louder, filling space Maya didn’t realize felt empty until now.
“You’ve been quiet,” Carla said, sliding past her to grab more cups.
“I’m working,” Maya replied.
“You’re always working.”
Maya didn’t respond.
She wiped her hands on a towel and glanced toward the window again.
People passed by like normal.
Nothing strange.
Still—
Her eyes lingered.
There was this feeling.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Just… off.
Like when you walk into a room and forget why you went in there, but something tells you it mattered.
“Maya.”
“Hm?”
“You’re staring again.”
Maya blinked and looked away.
“Sorry.”
Carla gave her a look but didn’t push.
The bell rang again.
A woman walked in, shaking her hands from the cold.
“Oh my god it is freezing out there,” she said, laughing as she stepped up to the counter. “Y’all got anything warm besides coffee?”
Maya nodded.
“Fresh banana bread.”
“Ooo, yeah, give me that.”
Maya turned to grab a loaf, but something near the door caught her eye.
A flyer.
Half peeling off the glass.
It hadn’t been there this morning.
She frowned slightly.
“Carla, did you put that up?”
“Put what up?”
Maya nodded toward the door.
“That flyer.”
Carla leaned to look.
“I didn’t put nothing up there.”
Maya walked over slowly.
The edges of the paper fluttered slightly every time the door opened.
It was printed.
Black and white.
A face in the center.
A name underneath.
Her stomach tightened before she even fully processed it.
Ryan Thorn.
She froze.
For a second, everything around her dulled.
The voices.
The movement.
Even the warmth of the bakery felt distant.
“Maya?” Carla said from behind her. “What is it?”
Maya didn’t answer.
She reached out and pulled the flyer off the glass.
It came free too easily.
Like it had just been placed there.
Her eyes scanned it.
Missing.
Last seen…
Date.
Details.
Her chest started to feel tight.
“That’s your—” Carla stopped herself. “That’s your dad, right?”
Maya nodded slowly.
“I… yeah.”
She hadn’t seen his face in years.
Not like this.
Not staring back at her from a missing poster.
“Why is that here?” Carla asked.
“I don’t know.”
But something about it didn’t sit right.
Not just that it was there.
But how.
Maya flipped the paper over.
Blank.
No tape.
No thumbtacks.
Nothing that explained how it had been stuck to the glass.
Her fingers tightened slightly around the edges.
“Did someone come in and put it up?” Carla asked.
“I didn’t see anyone.”
Carla frowned.
“I was right here.”
Maya looked back at the door.
People kept coming in.
Going out.
Normal.
Everything normal.
But that feeling in her chest—
It was back.
Stronger now.
Like something had just slipped into her life without her noticing.
“Maya, you good?” Carla asked quietly.
Maya nodded, but it wasn’t convincing.
“Yeah.”
She folded the flyer once.
Then again.
Like making it smaller would make it less real.
“I’m gonna keep this,” she said.
“Obviously.”
Maya let out a quiet breath and tucked it under the counter.
Out of sight.
But not out of mind.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur.
Orders.
Conversations.
Smiles that didn’t fully reach her eyes.
Every now and then, she’d glance at the door.
Half expecting to see someone watching.
No one ever was.
Still—
When the rush finally slowed and the bakery settled into a quieter rhythm, Maya reached under the counter and pulled the flyer back out.
She stared at her father’s face.
At the printed words.
And that strange, heavy feeling settled deep in her chest again.
Like something had just begun.
Like this wasn’t random.
Like it was meant to find her.
Maya swallowed slowly.
For years, she had stayed away.
Never looked back.
Never asked questions.
But now—
She couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever her mother ran from…
had finally found her anyway.
- Writer
