Chapter 13 - The Second Baseball Cake
October rolled back around with the sharp, crisp smell of roasted chestnuts and burning maple leaves off the harbor.
Theo’s ninth birthday fell on a Saturday.
There was no rented party room with damp linoleum and fluorescent humming. There was no cake ordered from an expensive bakery in Park Ridge.
Instead, old man Kostas from Bakery Bros downstairs had personally delivered a two-tier chocolate baseball cake right to our apartment door at 1:00 PM, complete with white fondant seams and a small sugar-paste glove that didn't look like a dying pigeon.
"On the house," Kostas had said in his heavy Greek accent, patting Theo on the shoulder. "For the best shortstop on 86th Street."
We celebrated at the picnic tables in Shore Road Park, right beside the harbor where the container ships moved slowly down toward the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge under a bright, cloudless autumn sky.
There were no cousins running riot across the grass. No sister standing by the sidelines critiquing my paper plates. No mother giving me lectures on family solidarity.
Just Theo, me, and three of his classmates from the public school down the block—kids with grass stains on their knees and clearance sneakers that actually belonged to them.
When the nine candles were lit—real wax, yellow flames flickering steadily against the crisp October wind—Theo closed his eyes, his little hands curled into tight fists of intense concentration.
I stood beside him, my hands in the pockets of my wool coat, watching the way the candlelight reflected in his bright, clear eyes.
"Make a big wish, buddy," I whispered.
Theo took a deep, steady breath, puffed out his cheeks, and blew out every single flame in one clean, powerful puff.
White smoke curled up into the salt air, smelling of burnt string and sweet chocolate.
May you like
No one jumped into the cake. No one shouted about a new phone.
Theo just grinned, grabbed a plastic knife, and cut the first massive slice right down the middle of the pitcher's mound, handing it to me with a chocolate smudge on his nose.
