The first day of winter was the grand opening of “Amber’s Ambrosia”, Amber Angelou’s new bakery.

I must have the worst luck of anyone in the whole world, Amber thought to herself when she woke to find snow falling. She just hoped the snow wouldn’t keep anyone away from her big day.

Unfortunately for her toddlers, Marcus and Jocelyn, Amber’s concern where snow was concerned didn’t extend to them. On her way out to school, their older sister, Katamari, had let them outside to play. A sleeping Amber had no idea they left, and in her preoccupation with the bakery, failed to notice them missing. Their grandfather, Colin, was usually more attentive but he was exhausted after all the cooking Amber had had him do in anticipation of the grand opening.

To Amber’s delight, the snow was light and was mostly gone by early afternoon. She had a few customers, and found herself able to try out some of the sales pitches she had stayed up late rehearsing the night before. The spiels reminded her of her acting days, and she imagined herself a plucky heroine: the down on her luck single mother picking herself up and rebuilding her life. She just needed a handyman or other blue collar worker to fall in love with to round out the plot. Amber decided she would have to keep an eye out.

Working the cash register was harder, and altogether less enjoyable than her sales pitches. She reminded herself that every heroine needed an opportunity to persevere and show her mettle.

Her customers didn’t seem to find her struggles to be quite the novelty she did.

After finding the toddlers outside, Colin had warmed them up, fed them, and tucked them away for the afternoon naps. Noticing Amber seemed frustrated at the cash register, Colin decided it was the perfect time to take a walk before she roped him into more work. While walking, he was delighted to run into Renee Kincaid.

“Colin! I was just headed to your house to see how Amber’s grand opening was going.”

“Truth be told, Renee, I think the novelty is already wearing off.” Colin couldn’t help but sigh over his flaky daughter.

“Don’t let her pass the work off onto you,” Renee cautioned him. “You do too much for her as it is, if you ask me.”

Something about the chance meeting, Renee’s concern for him, and the way she looked in the late afternoon light, brought up a sudden and intense longing in Colin to be with her always. Impulsively, with his heart thudding in his chest, Colin dropped to one knee. A million phrases ran through his head; a million words of love and devotion and poetry, but the one ones that he managed to work his mouth around were simple.

“Marry me.”

There was a brief pause, and Colin realized he had done it all wrong. He had no ring, no home of his own even, and he knew there was no practical reason for Renee to say yes.

But she did anyway.

Back at the house, unaware of the way her life was about to change, Amber was resting and reflecting on her afternoon. After three full hours of work in the bakery, she was completely exhausted. Worst of all, her attempt to rest was being hampered by a child’s voice trying to get her attention.

“Could you please read me a book? Pleeeeease?”

“Um, the shop is closed. Shouldn’t you go home and ask your mom to read you a book?”

“Mom, I am home! It’s me, Marcus. You know… Your son?”

Indeed, with all the excitement and resultant exhaustion following the grand opening, Marcus’s childhood transition went unnoticed and uncelebrated. Amber was only slightly abashed at having missed this momentous occasion in her son’s life. To ease that uncomfortable feeling she was unfamiliar with, but most of us would call guilt, Amber got a children’s book off the bookcase.

While Marcus was trying to connect with his mother, his older sister Katamari, who had long since learned that’s a pointless exercise, was writing a letter when she should have been doing her homework. When she first moved to Nevermore, Katamari had tried to contact her former nanny, Apricot, by phone. Unfortunately, Apricot’s cellphone had been provided by Amber as part of her wages, so when the job ended, so did the phone service. After realizing the phone was disconnected, Katamari started attempting to reach her nanny the only other way she could think of: a series of letters sent to their old address. She ended the letter as she always did, with an I love you, and a Please come get me soon.