Author's Note:
This is my first time to publish anything I've written, so please don't be too harsh on me.
Warning ⚠ :
English is not my first language, please be patient with me. There will be grammatical and punctuation errors, beware!
Chapter 1
Most of the traumatic things that we go through earlier in our lives affect us the most later in life.
My name is Enhle Star Maseko. I was told that father desperately wanted a girl child after having three boys and one girl, so I was his 'Star', I was his light in his night. I use the past tense because as soon as father and mother found out that I will never walk, everything changed. I no longer was his light, I was his curse.
This is not because I hate my parents or what, it's based on how they used to treat me before Aunt Olivia, my father's sister took me in when I was 15 years old. Auntie became my mom and her husband my father, they couldn't have kids, they adopted me and gave me all their love.
They say all good things must come to an end, and they were right. My adoptive parents died when I was 20 in a tragic car accident. They both died on impact, that is what I was told by the police. I thought about ending my life but then I remembered everything they had done for me, how disappointed they would be if I killed myself.
They left the small farm to me, the place I call home with no doubt or hesitation. Our farm is the size of two soccer fields, we grow a variety of vegetables, we have an orchard, we also have animals, chickens for eggs and meat, dairy cattle and some goats.
We survived on selling our farm produce, even after their death, me and the helpers continued with their legacy.
A while back I did some self-introspection, trying to find out what I can do to bring in money, something that I love doing. Since living in the farm, mom taught me to cook and bake and I fell in love with it. I decided to open a dessert shop in town, Heavenly Delight.
The shop has been open for about a month and I'm seeing a steady growth. Customers come flooding in from the time we open at 7 am until we close at 6 pm. I like seeing the smiles they have after taking the first bite of whatever they bought that I made with my own hands.
Most customers are surprised to find someone who is in a wheelchair serving them but they almost pee on themselves when they learn that I do not only own the shop, but I also do the baking. Like this customer.
"Seeing you here in your chair, smiling, teaches us, the old school parents, that having a child with a disability is not the end of the world. You are an inspiration to all of us thank you and your pastries are to kill for", she says looking at me as if I am a wonder.
"Thank you so much for your kind words, they motivate me", I tell her sincerely with tears almost spilling out.
Wendy, my colleague, and I are serving the morning rush. I serve the baked goods and she serves drinks. By the look of it, I underestimated my customers and myself, I will have to bake after the crowd dies down around 10 am, which is in an hour. Most of the breakfast favorites will be finished by then.
"Hi, can I have 5 blueberry muffins, 5 bagels, 5 donuts, 10 fat cakes and scones", says a tall guy, well everyone is tall compared to my sitting height. He is dressed in a black suit, he works in an office.
I get to work on his order, making sure I pack the right things, Wendy helps the next customer who is complaining that the guy I'm serving will finish everything before his turn.
"I'm Aviwe by the way", says the guy introducing himself while I pack.
"I'm Enhle and my colleague is Wendy", I introduce us even though we are wearing name tags.
"Thanks, Enhle and I will see you both on my lunch hour. Bye", he says taking his heavy paper bag. I bid him goodbye since Wendy is busy with another customer.
"Since we opened the shop, we have never been this busy. You really are blessed", says Wendy once we are done with the customers that were in a never ending line.
"We are both blessed, don't exclude yourself. I'll leave you to your breakfast while I bake", I leave her. We won't have many customers now, she can handle them alone.
I don't bake everything that we are out of or almost out of because some of them are only breakfast sellers. I make muffins, fat cakes and scones since they sell throughout the day.
"Please make donuts too, there are only 5 left", says Wendy making me throw her a playful glare.
"Don't give me that look, you are the one that made small batches, our customers are hungry", she says standing in the kitchen's doorway to make sure she sees customers when they come in.
"I can't just make a lot of things, you know people are unpredictable. I can make a lot and receive fewer customers rather I make small batches and bake throughout the day and we have zero leftovers at the end of the day", I tell her grabbing ingredients for making scones.
She leaves me once we hear the jingle sound the door makes when a person enters, she takes the already finished products to put them on the display warmers. Once the scones are in the oven, I pipe whipped cream on the remaining muffins.
As I wait for the scones to finish baking, I have my own breakfast, chocolate filled croissant and warm milk.
I don’t like making cakes for events because they require a lot of time decorating them. Making cakes to be sold as slices is not a big deal. For exposure and money, I will do it though. Luckily for me, Mrs Dlamini wants a birthday cake for next week Saturday, she wants the decorations to be simple, I write it down.
"Hi, I'm back", says Aviwe dragging a chair to sit on the counter, away from customers way though.
"Hi, did you enjoy everything?" I ask, I would hate it if he didn't like something.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't and they made everyone happy such that the deal that was to be finalized next week was finalized today. I couldn't be any more happy", he says making me happy that they enjoyed them.
"I don't think it was because of my baking, it was your hard work", I say serving a customer.
"Everything she does with her hands, turns out to be gold but she won't believe that", says Wendy ignoring my look talking to Aviwe and serving drinks to a customer.
"Then I will tell her every day until she believes it", he says getting a high five from Wendy.
Aviwe's friends join him for a celebratory lunch, as we are told. Ntsika is a fashion designer, Aviwe owns a marketing company and Sihle is a lawyer. They buy their food, sit in a table at the back.
By 2 pm the crowd dies down and the three friends call us over their table. As soon as we get comfortable, we are handed brownies, "This is to a new friendship. You don't know us and we don't know you but we will get to know each other as time goes on", Aviwe's speech and then we clink our brownies.
"To good friendship and gaining weight", says Ntsika making us all laugh.
The weird day comes to an end and I don't feel alone. I pray that if they have good intentions, may the friendship lasts through the test of time and may we bring happiness to one another.
God has His way of doing things, we should let Him do His thing without interfering. He knows what He's doing and we should trust Him.
