Chapter 3：Preparation

The sun starts to set as a cool breeze flows through the open windows, carrying the smell of sweet chocolate and baking cake batter throughout the house. With the chime of a timer, Red opens up the oven and pulls out a golden brown cake. Granny watches with excitement as she places it onto a plate on a counter. She then grabs a big bowl of chocolate and starts smothering the cake in it.

"And...done!" Red states with confidence as she admires the cake she just made.

"Come now, I wanna try a piece," Granny says eagerly under her several blankets.

"Okay, okay, let me just cut it first," She walks over to a knife holder by the sink. As she grabs the knife she needs she sees something. Something rather large can be seen in some bushes not too far away from the house. Red almost jumps as the thing suddenly gets up from the bush and runs off to town. Shaking a sudden chill off, she gets the knife and cuts the cake.

She gets a slice for Granny and a slice for herself, then walks over to the living room.

"Thank you dearie," Granny says as she's given her slice. Red sits down on the couch as the TV shows a game show. "It smells good," She says, slowly cutting into the cake with her fork. She picks up the piece and slowly raises it to her mouth, "Now to see if it tastes good,"

"M-m-mmm!" Granny exclaims, her face lighting up, "This is delicious! You were worrying for nothin,"

"Really?"

"Of course, you think this tongue of mine would ever lie?"

"No," After eating some cake and washing TV, Red helps Granny to bed and heads off to her room. As she gets all giddy thinking about how happy Granny looked when she took a bite of the cake, she pulls out the photo of her father from her basket. She gets a good look at his face before closing her eyes and imagining what he'd look like with that expression.

Maybe I could start at the diner, or go back to the bakery first...

She turns her head and looks through her window out into the town, where moonlight and the occasional street lamp illuminate what they can. She remembers the weird blobby thing she saw back at the kitchen earlier.

What one earth could it have been? It looked like a person, but, if it was, what on earth were they doing? Were they watching us?

Red looks more intently, trying to see if that same thing could be there, right outside her window. She doesn't see anything. She gets up and hurries over to her window, shuts the blinds, and closes the curtains.

The next morning Red cooks Granny breakfast, gets her stuff, convinces her to let her go out to practice more baking with Sheran, says "goodbye" and "I love you", and heads out the door. She makes a beeline straight for the bakery, saying mostly only good morning and hello in response to the other townsfolk. Sheran is just finishing flipping the sign by the time Red walks in.

"Morning Red, you look very energetic, I'm guessing Granny enjoyed the cake?" Sheran asks.

"She, loved it."

"That's good to hear, what brings you here today?"

"I was wondering if you could help me with the recipe with caramel, I want to make that cake for my dad," Sheran was surprised by this, just as much as she was the day before.

"Oh, alright. Let's head to the kitchen then," She says, gesturing for Red to follow her to the back, "So, caramel is very thick, so if you want to use it in a cake, we're gonna have to use it as a topping. So what we can do is take the recipe from yesterday, and change that up a bit, and work on the caramel while it's baking."

"Okay," They spend a couple hours baking, most of the time spent on trying to make a caramel that tasted good with the cake and was nice and creamy when heated up. After making three cakes they decided to call it a day as Sheran was starting to get more customers and Red was wanting to go ask around about her father.

"Thanks for the help, I'll be back tomorrow."

"See ya Red, make sure not to stay out too late, you don't want Granny worrying about you,"

As she left the bakery she tried to think of where to go first. Maybe Floral, or Chip, or perhaps Mister Thompson. She heads off to Chip first, since she also wants to go pet some animals.

She enters the small store filled with the sounds of birds, hamster wheels, dogs, and cats.

"Morning Red, here to pet the animals?"

"A bit, but I also wanted to ask you some questions."

"If it's about getting a pet trust me, I've tried to convince your Granny to get one for years."

"No, not that, they're about my dad."

"Your dad?" He says as he puts his hand into a cage full of small birds, "What's with the sudden interest?" A small yellow and grey bird jumps onto his hand which he takes out, closing the cage.

"Well, yesterday I went to the bakery to make a cake for Granny when Randy had come by and he gave me a picture of him," She pulls out the picture, showing Chip.

"That's an old photo, that must have been before…"

"Before what?" He's a bit hesitant to speak.

"Before he stopped coming into town."

"Why doesn't he come into town?"

"Well," He says as he pets the bird gently, "I don't know what you know about your mother."

"Oh. Uh, Granny, told me last year, about her passing shortly after I was born. Is that why he doesn't visit town?"

"As far as we know, yes."

"Well, do you think it might also have something to do with me being here?"

"Oh heavens no Red. I think he doesn't come to town because it's too painful for him Here," He holds out his hand with the bird on it, "Why don't you give RP some love?"

"RP?" She asks taking the bird.

"Really Pretty, it's the only thing he says."

"Really pretty," The bird says in a high pitched voice. Red laughs a bit as she starts to pet RP.

"What was he like before?"

"He was very quiet, now he says that quite often when he's in front of a mirror."

"Not, RP," She says with a giggle, "My dad. What was my dad like before my mother passed?"

"Oh, your dad. He was very nice and polite, very much in love with your mother. In fact I don't ever recall seeing him until he just showed up one day being shown around by your mom. He was a visitor to our town who you're mother managed to woo upon first sight. So much so he quickly decided to make this place his home. I have no doubt he loves you just as much if not more than how much he loved your mother,"

After that they just spent the rest of the time talking about and petting all the animals in the store. The following days leading up to Monday were the same, Red would spend a couple hours working practicing cake baking, then she'd go around asking the townsfolk about her dad, although she made sure only Sheran knew about her plan to go with Randy Monday. To her disappointment they didn't have much new information.

"So, he only comes once a month?" Red asks the diner owners, Cindy and Loo, baffled, "How have I never seen him?"

"He comes very early in the mornings or whenever you're Granny isn't out and about,"Cindy says.

"You guys talking about Jerard?" A tall red-haired man asks as he sits down at the counter a seat away from them.

"Yeah, Red's here wanting to know about her dad." Loo answers.

"Oh, you must be Red, I'm Gerald," He says with a smile holding out a hand.

"Nice to meet you," She replies, shaking hands.

"Your dad and Granny never did get along well, the usual please," He says to a nearby waitress, "She wasn't too happy that her daughter was dating a complete stranger. In fact, she tried to hook your mom up with me when we were seniors in high school, but she didn't like me too much."

"That's putting it lightly," Cindy says, "She couldn't stand you." They said jokingly. Gerald laughed a bit.

"Yeah, but hey, that didn't stop me from trying at least," He shrugs, "But yeah, she fell for your dad, and so I backed off, although your Granny wasn't too happy. Speaking of Granny, does she know you're here, by yourself?" The waitress comes by and hands him a coffee.

"Yeah, I told her I was going to be at Sheran's bakery practicing my cake recipe,"

"Hm, well, you sure seem very busy practicing cake recipes," He takes a sip of coffee.

"Um, well, me and Sheran, finished a bit early today..." She says becoming a bit nervous.

"Don't worry kid," He says with a hearty smile, and waving at the air, "I'm not gonna go running to her telling her what you're doing, I'm not your babysitter. Thank you," He says as the waitress hands him a plate of food.

"I know you work with my dad, so, could I ask you something about him?" She asks as he takes a bite of his eggs.

"Of course," He says, holding up his hand with the fork to cover his food-filled mouth.

"Well, I was hoping to go see him at work tomorrow...do you think he'd be okay with that?" He finishes chewing and swallows before answering.

"Oof, that's a tough one, I can't really say. It's all up to you missy. But if you do go and see him tomorrow be sure to come say hi to me too alright?" He takes his fork and takes a scoop of hash browns.

"Alright,"

"Oh," He says, some hash browns still in his mouth, "And be sure to give yourself enough time to make it back before sundown. The woods can be a dangerous place, there's a reason only us lumberjacks live there," He says giving her a parental look.

"I will."

After that she heads home for the day.

The next morning she gets up extra early to make the melted caramel fudge cake she had been practicing all week.

"What are you up to in the kitchen?" Granny asks as Red hands her soup.

"It's a cake I'm making for Sheran, she's been helping me with my recipe all week and I wanted to say thank you,"

"Aw, such a sweet little girl," She says rubbing Red's head, "Could you make another chocolate cake for dinner too?"

"Of course grandma," The oven timer goes off, "Oh, it's done." Red heads to the kitchen, finishes the cake, puts it in a container, and puts it in her basket.

"Morning Sheran,"

"Morning Red," She suddenly smells something sweet, "What's in the basket?"

"It's the cake you've been helping me make all week,"

"Ooh, smells delicious,"

"Yeah, I just hope dad will like it,"

"I'm sure he will as long he isn't upset about you visiting him at work, where he works has many work hazards you know."

"I'll be sure to be careful." The bell chimes as Randy enters.

"Morning Sheran, morning red," He says nodding at them.

"Morning," They reply.

"Hey, Randy," Red says turning to him, "I baked a cake for my dad," She glances down at her basket, "And I was hoping you could take me with you so I could give it to him?," She says, looking up at him with a hopeful smile.

"Uh, Granny would kill me if she knew..." He starts to scratch the back of his head, trying not to look her in the eyes, "Well, I," He sees the look on her face, "How can I say no to that face..."

"Yay!" She says with excitement.

"But you have to stay near me, when we're there, it's no playground ya know," Red nods with a big smile on her face, "Well, guess I won't be buying donuts this morning..."

"No worries Randy, just keep an eye on her please,"

"She isn't the first kid I had to babysit, I got this." And they leave the bakery getting into his old, rusty blue, mud-covered truck.