Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

The Circus Cake

Elmwood Springs, Missouri

1978

In the morning she went over to pick up a little ivy plant for her window that Aunt Elner wanted her to have. Aunt Elner was overjoyed she was going to be so close by. “I’m just tickled to death you are going to be living in Neighbor Dorothy’s old house. Oh, honey, many is the broadcast I heard from there.”

“Was there a studio there or something?”

Aunt Elner sat down at her kitchen table. “I don’t know if it was a studio or not, it was just in her living room. That’s where the show came from, every day from nine-thirty to ten, like clockwork. I never missed.”

Dena reached over and took a fresh biscuit. “What was it, a kind of news show?”

“A news show? I guess you could call it that. But she had all kinds of things on there. She had music—there used to be an organ in the living room that Mother Smith played, but after Mother Smith died they gave it to the church. And all kinds of people used to sing or play or do whatever they had a mind to. She gave out household hints, recipes, and had talks.”

“What kind of talks?”

“Oh, all kinds—Ruby Robinson, the radio nurse, would give health talks—and Audrey would give religious talks. Anybody that wanted to come on and talk on the radio could. People used to stick their heads in the window and chat about things.”

“Things like what?”

Aunt Elner laughed. “I don’t know, somebody might have lost a dog or wanted to announce a pot luck or something.”

“What’s a pot luck?”

“Don’t you know what a pot luck is? Don’t they have them in New York?”

“I don’t know, what are they?”

“It’s just a dinner where everybody brings something. We have one up at the church the first Friday of every month. Why don’t you come? It’s a lot of fun. You never know what all they might have to eat; it changes every month. One time Bess Truman came.”

“To the pot luck?”

“No, on the ‘Neighbor Dorothy’ show. All kinds of people would come on, people would send in letters. She had contests where you could win a sack of flour. She put out a real good cookbook. I lost mine but Norma may still have hers.”

“What was she like?”

“Who?”

“Neighbor Dorothy.”

“Oh, she was just a nice lady, had two children …”

“What did she sound like?”

“Real sweet, like she was glad you were listening. It’s too bad they didn’t have tape recorders back then, I’d love to hear one of her old programs again. I sure do miss not hearing her. I got used to hearing her. Neighbor Dorothy was a lot of company, I can tell you that. Not that I didn’t love living on the farm while Will was alive, but one of the bad parts about living way out in the country is I’d get so lonesome for people. My closest neighbor was twelve miles up the road. Will wasn’t much of a talker and I used to be starved for the sound of another person’s voice. If it hadn’t been for Neighbor Dorothy’s show, I would have been twice as lonesome for sure. It was like having a next-door neighbor to visit with every day. Made it easier to get through the days all by yourself out there. And at night, you could see the red light on the radio tower she had in her yard all the way out at the farm. I don’t know what kind of a show you’d call it but it always made me feel better. Eat all the biscuits you want, honey, I was just going to give them to the birds.”

Dena took another one and put butter and jam on it.

“Did you ever meet her, Aunt Elner? Neighbor Dorothy?”

“Oh, lands, yes. She was a good friend of your grandmother’s.” She looked at Dena. “Come to think of it, you met her, too; don’t you remember?”

“No. When?”

“Oh, lots of times. Anna Lee, her daughter, and her friend, Patsy, ran a little nursery school out there on the back porch. That’s where you used to go to nursery school. Don’t you remember going there?”

“Are you sure it was me?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I can even remember one time, you must have been four, and you had your birthday party there with all your little nursery school friends. Your mother dressed you up like a china doll; she was working at Morgan Brothers department store, and kept you in the cutest dresses. Your grandparents came, your mother got off work early so she could be there, I came, Norma came, we all came.”

Dena was surprised. “Really?”

“You were so happy, a happy little child, and you were such a sweet little thing, not one bit spoiled.”

“I was happy?”

“Oh, yes. I think that was the happiest time of all our lives when we had our Baby Girl with us. We sure hated to lose you, I can tell you that.”

“I don’t remember ever having a birthday party.”

“You sure did. You know, I might have a picture in Gerta’s things. I think we took a picture that day if I’m not mistaken. Hold on and let me go get that box. I’ll go look in my bottom drawer, see if I can’t find it.”

Dena could hear her opening and closing drawers.

Then she said, “Here it is!” and came back into the kitchen and handed a photograph to Dena. “Looka there. Now if that isn’t you, a happy child, I’m a monkey’s uncle.”

Dena looked. It was a picture of a little blond girl sitting at the end of a small table full of other children. The girl was her and there was her mother, leaning against the wall with her arms behind her. Her head was turned toward Dena and she was smiling and looking at her with love in her eyes. The photograph had captured her mother in an unguarded moment. Dena had never seen her mother look at her like that; she had never felt that love she saw now.

Something else in the picture caught her eye. It was a cake with what looked to be a miniature merry-go-round on top.

“What’s this?”

“Neighbor Dorothy made you that. She made you one of her famous carousel cakes. It was pink and white; you remember that, don’t you?”

On the way home Dena tried to remember what it was. There was something familiar about that cake and yet she couldn’t quite place it. It was something she had seen before. Then, all of a sudden, it hit her. She knew what it was.

When Dena got to the house, she walked out on the back porch and stood there, staring at the picture in her hand, and cried. This was the same merry-go-round she had been dreaming about for years. This was the place she had been trying to get back to, where she had once been happy.