The Outfield Café was really crowded that day. Coralee Hart sat at the counter and watched her mother and father running around the restaurant, talking to customers and putting money in the cash register. The three waiters were in such a rush that she wondered how they didn’t run into one another.

She heard a knock at the kitchen door.

“That must be Johann from Kitty Conn’s Shop next door with the cakes we ordered. Coralee, would you let him in,” Dixie Hart said to her daughter.

“Sure, mom,” Coralee said as she went to open the door. It was Johann from Mrs. Conn’s. Mrs. Conn’s business had increased so much since the Hart’s restaurant opened next door to her shop that she had to hire Johann to help her. Johann stood in the door with several white cake boxes tied together with string. He held them by a loop at the top.

“Hi Coralee,” he said, “This is the first batch. There are nine more cakes on their way,” he said.

“Wow, nine more!” Coralee answered back. She had never seen so many cakes in her life…not even in Mrs. Conn’s shop.

“I’m supposed to set this one aside for a special party tonight. Where should I put it?” Johann said, pointing to one of the boxes.

“Right here by Louis’ orders, I guess,” Coralee said. Johann put the cake on the counter.

Kitty Conn stuck her head in the door. “Hi there, Coralee. Any room out there for one more?”

“Sure, Mrs. Conn. Wanna sit at the counter with me?”

Kitty took a seat at the counter,

“I’m not supposed to take orders, but I don’t think anyone will mind if I do,” Coralee said to Mrs. Conn. Coralee wasn’t supposed to play in the kitchen. Louis and the waiters were so busy, her parents were afraid she’d get trampled.

“Okay. I’ll have the chicken sandwich with a side of macaroni salad and a tall lemonade,” she said without looking at the menu.

Coralee wrote Mrs. Conn’s order on the pad. She was having fun pretending to wait on Mrs. Conn. She went in the kitchen to give the order to Louis, the cook. Louis was out back selecting loaves of bread from Johann’s cart. So, Coralee went to put the order on one of the metal hooks where the waiters left the customers’ orders for Louis. She couldn’t really reach the hook, so she needed to stand on the stool. As she climbed the stool, Coralee lost her balance and tipped over the special cake box on the counter. As it fell, the top opened and it fell icing first onto the kitchen floor. It was all crumbled on the edges and sunken in the middle like a hole in the road.

“Oh no!” Coralee said.

She hurried to clean up the mess before Louis got back in and scooped up the lumps of cake. With a wet rag, Coralee finished wiping the floor just as Louis came in.

“Did I spill?” Louis asked.

“No, I was just…” But, Coralee didn’t finish her sentence. Louis cut her off,

“What’s this? Another order? I’ll get right on it.”

Coralee didn’t know what to do. She went to her father, smiling as she passed Mrs. Conn at the counter so she wouldn’t know what happened.

“Dad…” Coralee started to say, but, before her father could answer, more customers had come in and he turned to greet them. Coralee went to tell her mom that she had dropped the cake, but realized that she was in the back room working on the accounts. She knew better than to bother her mother while she was working on the books. She decided to tell them about the cake later. What difference could one cake make?

Through the window of the restaurant, she saw her friend Nesta and waved for her to come in.

Nesta said, “I was over at Mrs. Conn’s and Johann said you were over here. Tamara and I are going with her older brother, TJ, to the creek to look for fossils. Do you want to come?”

“Sure I do.” Coralee said. She had forgotten all about the broken cake.

Coralee’s dad had overheard her conversation and gave his permission for them to go to the creek as long as TJ was there. Her brother, Daniel, was playing with Mario’s brothers. Her father was glad she would have someone to play with.

The kids had a great time at the creek splashing around in the water. TJ and his friend David helped them find some really pretty rocks and leaves, but they didn’t find any fossils. It didn’t matter, they had a great time anyway.

It was getting to be dinner time and Coralee had to get back to the Outfield Café. There was going to be a big private dinner party there later for Nancy Wu’s birthday. Coralee said she would help out.

As she was coming in the backdoor of the restaurant, Coralee heard her father shouting at someone. She saw he was yelling at Johann! Mrs. Conn stood next to Johann rubbing her hands together. She looked worried.

“I ordered fifteen cakes, Kitty! We served fourteen to the lunch crowd. Johann shorted us!” he said.

“Luke, I know I baked fifteen cakes. I have the dirty dishes to prove it. There has to be an explanation for this. I’m your land-lady and your friend, why would I cheat you?” Mrs. Conn answered.

“All I know is that there is a birthday party scheduled here in half an hour and we don’t have a cake for them.” Mr. Hart answered.

“I think I know what happened,” Coralee said with a dry mouth. She opened the trash can and revealed the crumbs of the broken cake.

“How did this happen?” Mr. Hart asked. He didn’t yell at Coralee, but his voice showed he was mad.

Coralee wanted to say that Louis did it, but she knew that was the coward’s way out. She had to take what was coming.

“I knocked the cake on the floor, It was an accident.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mr. Hart answered.

“I tried, but everyone was too busy,” Coralee answered.

Mr. Hart’s frown softened a little when he heard this.

Coralee continued, “And…then I forgot about it. I didn’t know it was going to cause this much trouble for everyone.”

“It’s too late to bake a new cake now,” Johann said.

“I think I have an idea…we have half an hour until the guests show up and it will be another half an hour while they eat before they’re ready for cake. That gives us an hour. Come on, Coralee. You can help me.” Kitty Conn said.

Coralee and Mrs. Conn left to go to her shop, as they left Mrs. Conn said to Mr. Hart, “Trust me, Luke. We won’t let you down.”

Mr. Hart said, “I’m sorry I lost my temper.”

Mrs. Conn smiled and answered, “Awwww, it happens. It’s forgotten.”

The guests arrived at the Outfield Café for the party. They were all having a really good time and they seemed to be enjoying the food. But, it soon grew time to serve the birthday cake and Luke Hart was growing nervous. He hadn’t seen any sign from Kitty or Coralee that they had made a new cake.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the kitchen door. Luke opened it and in walked Kitty Conn with a tray of beautiful cupcakes. Some were chocolate, others where lemon, others still were white cake with strawberry icing. One was slightly bigger than the others, it had a candle on top. The others were all decorated with sugared flowers.

“Here you go, Luke,” Kitty said to Coralee’s father, “We only had an hour. Cupcakes bake faster than big cakes and they cool faster. Because they are smaller. Once they were cool, Coralee helped put the icing and flowers on. I think we used every cupcake tin in the bakery.”

Mr. Hart was very happy with the cupcakes. He and Mrs. Hart helped serve them. The guests thought they were the cutest things they had ever seen. After the party, Nancy came up to Dixie Hart and thanked her for a wonderful party, “And what a great idea to have a cupcake for everyone!” Mrs. Hart smiled and said, “It was all Coralee’s doing.”

After everyone had left and the restaurant was closed, Coralee sat down in a booth. She was really tired.

“Coralee,” her father said, “I am sorry that you thought we were too busy to hear you when you tried to tell us about the cake. We get wrapped up in our work sometimes.”

Coralee said, “That’s okay.”

“But,” Mr. Hart continued, “You should not have been in the kitchen. Louis is very busy back there and I don’t want you to get hurt. We have told you that many times. If you had listened to us in the first place, none of this would have happened.”

Coralee nodded and said, “We learned in CCD that the Bible says to ‘honor your mother and father.’ I guess it’s because they know best.”

“It’s because we want you to be safe. Okay?”

“Okay,” Coralee said.

Mr. Hart laughed, “God was watching over us tonight wasn’t he? It all turned out all right. That Kitty Conn is an angel. Now, let’s get you home and pick up Daniel from the Cervantes’.”

As Coralee walked to the car with her parents, she thought about how lucky she was to have Kitty Conn as a friend. Maybe she was an angel after all.