The Apron with the Flour Handprint
Chapter 1Twelve Small Boxes
The bakery smelled of warm rolls and cinnamon.
Leah stood beside the packing table in a clean white apron. Mrs. Rosen had tied the apron strings for her before putting on her own headscarf more snugly.
"Twelve boxes," she said. "Two wrapped pastries in each. Check before you close them."
The boxes were for a small celebration downstairs. Leah's job was to put the sealed pastries into boxes, close the lids, and carry the finished stack to the front counter.
She was not using the oven or knives.
Her cousin Pessi folded the empty boxes beside her.
Mrs. Rosen showed them the order slip and left it under a metal clip.
Leah looked at the clock.
She wanted everything ready before Mrs. Rosen returned from the storeroom. Then she could say she had finished without any help.
Chapter 2The White Mark
Pessi held out another open box.
Leah put two pastries inside. She closed it and added it to the stack.
Across the table was a bowl of flour left from the morning's baking. Leah steadied herself against the table edge, where a little flour had spilled.
When she brushed her apron, a pale handprint appeared on it.
Pessi laughed.
"Your apron has a visitor."
Leah turned the marked part inward and tucked it under one apron string.
"Now it does not."
Pessi kept folding.
Leah worked faster. Open, fill, close, stack.
The box pile grew. The wrapped pastry pile shrank.
By the time Mrs. Rosen returned, twelve white boxes stood in two neat towers.
Leah faced her with the clean side of her apron showing.
"Finished."
Chapter 3The Loose Lid
Mrs. Rosen lifted the first tower onto a tray.
One lid sprang open.
Inside was a single pastry.
Leah felt the same hot flush she had felt when Pessi noticed the handprint.
"It must have slipped out."
Mrs. Rosen looked under the table. Nothing lay there except a flat piece of cardboard.
Pessi stopped folding the leftover boxes.
"That one was open when I gave it to you."
"I know how boxes work," Leah said.
The words came out sharper than she meant.
Pessi set down the last box and moved away from the table.
Mrs. Rosen placed the tray back on the counter.
"We need to check the order."
Leah wanted to add one pastry and close the loose lid. The towers would be neat again. The mistake would be smaller.
But she could no longer remember which boxes she had checked and which she had only closed.
Chapter 4One at a Time
"I went too fast," Leah said.
Mrs. Rosen waited.
"I might have done it in more than one box."
The celebration downstairs would begin soon. Reopening twelve boxes felt like walking backward through all her work.
Mrs. Rosen brought the order slip to the table.
"Two in each. Twelve boxes altogether. I will tell them we need a few more minutes."
Leah untucked her apron. The flour handprint showed again.
She opened the first box and placed it on the cleared side of the table.
Two pastries.
The next held two. The third held one.
She left that lid open.
By the sixth box, she needed someone to keep the checked boxes separate from the waiting ones.
Pessi stood near the shelves, straightening unused cardboard.
Leah went over.
"I was sharp with you. You did not leave anything out of the boxes. I was filling them."
Pessi looked at her.
"You said it as though I had."
"I am sorry. Will you help me keep these apart?"
Chapter 5A Different Stack
Pessi returned to the table.
This time she stood on the other side. After Leah checked a box, Pessi put it on the finished tray.
There were three boxes with only one pastry.
Leah added the missing wrapped pastries from the remaining pile. They checked those boxes again before closing them.
Mrs. Rosen returned from downstairs.
"They are setting out the cups. We still have time."
The new stack was not as tall or as pretty as Leah's first two towers. Pessi had spread the boxes across the tray so none would tip.
Leah counted them with a finger hovering above each lid.
Twelve.
Mrs. Rosen checked the order slip and carried the tray. The girls followed with the empty delivery basket.
On the stairs, Pessi pointed to the flour mark.
"Your visitor stayed."
"It can carry boxes with us."
Chapter 6The Last Question
Downstairs, the hostess, her hair covered by a cream scarf, checked the order slip while Mrs. Rosen set the tray on a clear table.
"Twelve?"
Leah nodded.
"Two in each. We checked."
She nearly added that she had done the packing by herself.
Pessi was beside her, holding the basket. Mrs. Rosen had delayed the delivery and helped them begin again.
"Pessi helped me," Leah said.
The hostess thanked both girls.
Back upstairs, Leah took off the apron and hung it on the hook for washing. The handprint was still visible.
Beside it hung Mrs. Rosen's apron, with a long flour streak down one side.
Leah had not noticed that before.
Mrs. Rosen took the order slip from its clip and wrote a small check beside the delivery.
Pessi unfolded one of the spare boxes and held it up.
"We have three left."
Leah counted them before answering.
"Three."
Then she folded them flat with Pessi, leaving the clock to tick by itself.
