I hesitated. I am certainly not the kind of person who just goes to a stranger’s home. But there was something about Clara that felt genuinely safe. It wasn’t a cheesy movie moment; it felt completely real.
So, I followed her car a short distance until we arrived at a small apartment complex. She carried the new cake like it was made of fragile glass, and we climbed three flights of stairs to a door with peeling blue paint.
From inside, a tiny, excited voice shouted, “Did you get it?”
“Yup. Come see.”
The Ripple Effect Begins
A little girl with wild, energetic curls and a T-shirt that was two sizes too big ran out. She stopped dead when she saw the beautiful cake.
“Oh my GOSH,” she gasped loudly. “You found one?!”
Clara smiled and nodded. “A very kind person helped me.”
Her daughter looked up at me with enormous, wide eyes. “You helped?”
“Just a little,” I said.
She immediately launched herself at me with a hug so tight it completely caught me off guard. “Thank you! I really wanted strawberry-chocolate!”
