Of course, the crucial error was not housing the rye in a tight plastic bag and securing it with a flexible steel tie before I placed the loaf in the white waxed-paper bag. Of course, that step necessitated opening the plastic bag while still holding the rye in the air.

Not an easy task of coordination. A few of my loaves ended up as fodder for the sawdust floor.

More waste.

If it bothered Dad, he never said so.

Eventually I mastered the coordination necessary for packing the ryes. And not just ryes but loaves of challah and wheat bread as well. These were a challenge unto themselves, because challahs and wheat breads are much softer. They required a delicate touch with the bread slicer.

Not one to rest on my laurels, I demanded more. Dad must have felt that I was up to the ultimate challenge, because he put the entire bakery under my charge.

The entire bakery, and I was only eleven.

This was monumental.

Faye the bakery lady.

Take a number, please!

There I was, wearing a hairnet, slicing breads, twirling plastic bags with a flourish, and handing out free sprinkle cookies to toddlers.

The coup de grace came when Dad started taking me to the wholesale bakery to pick out items for our little bakery. We chose the usual rolls and breads and bagels and Danish. But now, since Dad had a genuine bakery lady, he began to invest in more coffee cakes, coffee rings, babkas, and cookies.

The smells were incredible. Hot and yeasty doughs laden with sugar, chocolate, nuts, and cinnamon, glazed with thin white frostings. The aromas, more than the visuals, made my mouth water. We chose our fare straight from the ovens, still hot, resting on parchment paper. At first my dad made all the selections. As I got bolder, I began to make a few suggestions of my own. Sometimes he listened. Sometimes he did not.

One week there was a particular coffee-ring cake that appealed to my eye as well as to my nose. It was a typical cinnamon yeast dough topped with circles of cherries, lemon, blueberries, and apple, the fruit swimming in seas of pectin and sugar. I had to have it. Though not particularly aromatic, it appealed to my eye.

"It will never sell," Dad said.

"But it's pretty."

"People buy with their noses, not with their eyes."

"People like fruit rings," I countered. "And if it doesn't sell, we can take it home."

I was the youngest in my family and the only daughter. I batted my eyelashes and Dad melted. Arriving at the store before the opening hour, I set out the coffee cakes, the cookies, the rolls, and the breads. I tidied up the plastic and paper bags. Unplugging the cord to the bread slicer, I cleaned it of yesterday's crumbs and seeds. I plugged in the bread slicer. Then, with my duties done, I waited for the customers to come out of the starting gate.

Our first consumer came in a few minutes after the doors opened at nine. She was a forty-plus woman-Jewish, as many of our customers were-who scrutinized my baked goods. I saw her eyeing my pretty coffee ring. The artificially red cherries, the egg yolk-colored lemon filling, the blueberries, and the apples.

She scrunched up her brow. "I'll take that one," she stated.

My father was looking over his shoulder as I scooped the cake under my hand and placed it in a pink bakery box, tying it with bakery string.

"Bingo, skittle ball in the old pocket," he whispered to me.

I had never heard the expression before. And Dad never used it again. But I never forgot it.

I decided to take on the job full-time during my summer vacation. It was hard work. I was on my feet most of the time, and I worked four- to eight-hour shifts. Halfway through the month of July, I experienced an epiphany. I was not going to do this for the rest of my life, putting up with cranky customers, flaky vendors, the whims of mechanical equipment, and fallen arches. I made a decision to go for an advanced educational degree. Though writing wasn't in my sights at the time-I never had the audacity to dream I could get published-I was still a person with many options. I could be anything I wanted to be. What I wanted more than anything was to do interesting work while seated.

One morning right after the store opened, I went to the restroom and realized, after a very startled reaction, that I had begun my menses. Enormously embarra.s.sed, I didn't know what to do. Sneaking off, I called my mother from a pay phone, and she came to pick me up. No stick.u.m pads back then. We girls were inducted into the clumsy world of belts and napkins. After the problem had been secured, Mom took me back to work.

She must have said something to my dad. He came up to me with a perplexed look on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asked with the concern of those men who stayed clear of female things.

"I'm fine, Dad."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

"I think you have a customer."

"Then I'd better go help her."

After that moment there were no more references to female things. We were just two people trying to earn an honest buck.

Publishing History.

"Bull's-eye," copyright 1997 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Family Circle/Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine #2 (spring 1997).

"A Woman of Mystery," copyright 1999 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Family Circle/Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine #6 (summer 1999); b) New Idea Magazine (2000), Pacific Publications (Australia).

"The Stalker," copyright 1996 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Murder for Love, edited by Otto Penzler, Delacorte, 1996.

"Mummy and Jack," copyright 2000 by Faye Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman. Previously published in: Mothers and Sons: A Celebration in Memoirs, Stories, and Photographs, edited by Jill M. Morgan, NAL, 2000.

"Bonding," copyright 1989 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Sisters in Crime, edited by Marilyn Wallace, Berkley, 1989; b) Hard-boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories, edited by Bill p.r.o.nzini and Jack Adrian, Oxford University Press, 1995.

"Discards," copyright 1990 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (November 1990, Volume 96, no. 5), edited by Eleanor Sullivan, Davis Publications; b) A Woman's Eye, edited by Sarah Paretsky, Delacorte, 1991; c) Women of Mystery: Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchc.o.c.k's Mystery Magazine, edited by Cynthia Manson, Carroll & Graf, 1992; d) Third Annual Best Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Josh Pachter and Martin H. Greenberg, Derc.u.m audio, 1993.

"Tendrils of Love," copyright 1997 by Faye Kellerman. Originally written for publication in: The Night Awakens: A Mystery Writers of America Anthology, edited by Mary Higgins Clark, Pocket Books, 1999/2000.

"Malibu Dog," copyright 1990 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Sisters in Crime 3, edited by Marilyn Wallace, Berkley, 1990; b) Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, Carroll & Graf, 1992; c) Modern Treasury of Great Detective and Murder Mysteries, edited by Edward Gorman, Carroll & Graf, 1994.

"The Back Page," copyright 1998 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Diagnosis: Dead: A Mystery Writers of America Anthology, edited by Jonathan Kellerman, Pocket Books, 1999; b) Giallo (j.a.panese quarterly), 2002/2003, Kobunsha (j.a.pan).

"Mr. Barton's Head Case," copyright 2003 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Du Sollst Nicht Toten: Zwolf Verbrechen aus der Bibel, edited by Regula Veske, Scherz Verlag, 2003 (German t.i.tle, "Mr Bartons Spezi").

"Holy Water," copyright 1994 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: a) Deadly Allies II: Private Eye Writers of America and Sisters in Crime Collaborative Anthology, edited by Robert J. Randisi and Susan Dunlap, Doubleday, 1994; b) Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery and Detective Fiction, edited by Lawrence W. Raphael, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1999; c) Stellar Audio Volume 20 (with "Inconvenience Store" by Max Allan Collins), Brilliance, Stellar Audio imprint, 1997.

"Free Parking," copyright 1996 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Mother: Famous Writers Celebrate Motherhood with a Treasury of Short Stories, Essays, and Poems, edited by Claudia O'Keefe, Pocket Books, 1996.

"The Luck of the Draw," copyright 1998 by Faye Kellerman, Rachel Kellerman, and Ilana Kellerman. Previously published in: Mothers and Daughters: Celebrating the Gift of Love with 12 New Stories, edited by Jill M. Morgan, NAL, 1998.

"Small Miracles," copyright 1997 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Small Miracles: Extraordinary Coincidences from Everyday Life, edited by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, Adams Media Corporation, 1997.

"The Summer of My Womanhood," copyright 1999 by Faye Kellerman. Previously published in: Fathers and Daughters: A Celebration in Memoirs, Stories, and Photographs, edited by Jill M. Morgan, Signet/NAL, 1999.

end.