The Cake

Jessica sat at the table with her daughter, Janie. Jessica and Janie could have easily been mistaken for sisters as Jessica had taken good care of her skin throughout her fifty years. Both had long honey blonde hair with ice blue eyes and lips other women would kill for, as well as model builds. Janie had some of her father in her, but that was mostly her stubborn attitude.

There was still almost a whole chocolate between the two women, with only two slices taken and barely touched. Janie was slowly sipping her lukewarm coffee while Jessica had something a bit stronger with her whisky on the rocks. The liquid went down with a sting, but it warmed Jessica and she felt now she needed the warmth. 

Janie took a tentative bite into her cake, it was stale from sitting out, but she needed to eat something. Since her father’s death only a few days ago, she had barely been able to eat. Janie was very close to her father, he had been her rock many times especially during Janie’s troublesome teenage years. 

“She’s just a spirited girl,” he would say when her mother started to lecture her about arguing with the teachers. 

“She’s not a pushover,” he would say when she was fighting with yet another girl who looked at her funny. 

The only time he would say nothing is when a boy would call or in Justin’s case, they were caught, pants down, in the middle of the act. Then  he would sigh and have a disappointed look on his face. Even in her more rebellious times, she felt the pain from his disappointment. 

Her father, Frederick, had a massive heart attack days earlier and that was the day she also felt a huge part of her also die. 

“We still need to clear out his room,” Jessica’s soft voice broke through Janie’s thoughts. 

Janie nodded, tears welling in her eyes.

“Don’t cry, please. You’ll make me cry,” Jessica put her hand on Janie’s. 

Janie again nodded, saying nothing as her voice would not have been strong enough to combat the tears. 

Jessica stood up from her chair to grab another whisky. She also started another pot of coffee for Janie even though Janie had barely touched the one currently in her front of her. She would need a pick-me-up after this whisky and her daughter definitely needed some caffeine. She knew Janie was not sleeping normally and it would be a while before she or her daughter would be back to their normal sleep schedule. She remembered when she lost her own father, the resentment her own mother had over their relationship. If Jessica were being honest with herself, she was a little jealous of Fred and Janie’s relationship, but she had never viewed her daughter as competition. Not like her own mother. It had always made Jessica’s skin creep when her own mother brung up that her father adored Jessica more than her. 

“Your father really loved you, Janie. He would want both of us to be healthy without him.”

“I know, Mom. It’s just hard without him.” 

“It will be for quite awhile. Please eat some more cake and have some more coffee. You love my chocolate cake as did your father,” Jessica smiled at her daughter. It was a haunted smile, but a smile nonetheless which was progress. 

“Sometimes, he would eat the entire thing,” Janie said. 

Jessica laughed, “ And leave us nothing.” 

The atmosphere was going from morose to nostalgic as Jessica and Janie shared more memories. 

But one memory of Fred tucking in Janie caused Janie’s face to grow pale. Jessica caught it immediately and her stomach dropped. 

She’s probably just sad from remembering.

But something told her that she was wrong. 

“What’s the look on your face, Janie?” 

“Nothing, just remembered something, it’s nothing, Mom.”

Jessica stared at her daughter as she poured some coffee for herself and Janie. Janie had scooped some more cake into her mother and she absentmindedly started to chew the cake like a cow. Jessica wanted to tell her to stop, but this was the first thing Janie had really eaten for a bit. She was not going to stop even with Janie’s chewing bothering her. She sighed to herself as she sat back down. 

A memory of Fred tucking in Jane slipped into her mind, an innocent picture at first of a man reading his daughter a bedtime story and giving her a quick peck on the head. Then as he was starting to pull away, he drew back to give her a small kiss on the lips. Jessica opened her eyes to look back at her daughter. She was imagining all this and she knew it. What had Fred always said was Jessica’s worst quality? That she would make a mountain out of a molehill? Jessica had to admit he was right, her imagination brought trouble a lot in her life. Janie was a normal twenty-five year old woman with normal relationships. She dated occasionally and wasn’t too frigid or promiscuous, not like when she was a teenager, but that was just normal teenage rebellion. She shakes the images out of her head, but more keep coming. Fred’s eyes wandering over a teenaged Janie, the look he got on his face when she would come home from a date in college, and the look he had when he would make love to his wife. That look of disgust he tried to hide with pleasure and lust. Never completely hiding his contempt for his wife while she grew older. 

“Janie… I’m sorry,” she cried at her daughter, “I knew, I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“Stop, please stop.” 

Both women were crying and Janie hadn’t yet admitted what happened, but a mother knew. 

Jessica knew all this time, what kind of person was she? To let her child go through this all by herself because she didn’t want to admit it?

“He didn’t, did he?”

“Mom…” 

She held her daughter and the table was shaking so much that the rest of the cake ended up on the floor. 

“I’m sorry,” Janie sobbed into her shoulder. 

“Stop saying you’re sorry, I’m sorry, I love you and I’m here. We’re going to a therapist and we’re going to be honest.” 

“Ok.” 

Janie held her mom and knew that even though her father loved her, his way was perverted. She had to admit to herself now that he was gone.