French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 55: -Gyeong-Wan- Into the Wonderland

I dotted little toes around a little boy's icing thumb print on his cookie. Ingeniously, Kazuya had brought bakers' markers full of food coloring for the kids and parents to use. They were just like regular markers, but with edible "ink". The cookies were also cleverly already iced with white icing to make drawing easier. A lot of the parents were helping their kids, and some of the older kids were helping the younger ones. Kazuya was surrounded by little girls who all wanted him to draw their favorite cartoon characters on their cookies upon finding he could draw anything in the world. It should have surprised me that he had this talent, but it didn't. He was always amazing. It made sense, because he decorated a lot of baked goods at French Cup, but he also decorated a lot of things at the shop, too. 

Still, he was on my mind as I observed the little boy make another thumb print of gray icing, and I dotted around it, too. I drew some whiskers on it. The boy made an admiring noise at my messy lines. "There, I think it's done," I said to him, picking it up and placing it into his happy hands. He immediately stuck it in his mouth without looking at it. "Is it good?" I asked, starting to laugh. He nodded wildly, loving this sugar cookie with chocolate and rainbow sprinkles inside of it. 

I left him to his cookie, and went over to Nikki's sister who was helping four two year olds create little mice on their cookies. They appeared to be all part of a little class together. I silently asked to help and she nodded gratefully. I poised my marker, and she placed a cookie on the rolled out drawing paper for me. The tables were covered in long sheets of drawing paper to make clean up easier. 

She was drawing a red bow made of simple triangles on the cookie in front of her, but I no longer thought this would symbolize that it was a girl mouse. It surprised me for a second. But, considering what I was wearing...

"Gyeong-Wan, you're doing great with these kids."

I looked up from the cookie I was decorating, and she was giving me a smile. "Oh- oh. Thank you. I like kids."

"Do you have kids of your own?"

The image of myself with Seo-Yoon and a couple of kids appeared in my mind. I shook my head fiercely. "No, I don't." My eyes landed on Nikki who was across the room, now holding a baby with a knitted pink cap on. The parent was beside him, talking animatedly to him as Nikki cooed to the baby, gently rocking the child. It warmed my heart more than I could say. Something in there yearned, but I quickly looked back at his sister. 

"That's a shame. I have one of my own. He didn't want to come, said it was baby stuff. He's over at my friend's place. That's her over there." She waved at a woman and she waved back. She was helping the little girl who'd asked the question about the strawberries. "That's her daughter, Mika. I've been friends with her mom since we were babies. In fact, I've been friends with most of the people here since I was a kid."

I stared at her inquiringly. Unsure what to make of this information. The little girl I was drawing on the cookie for tugged my flowy sleeve, and it was such a weird sensation. Almost like it didn't belong to me. I smiled at her and began to draw a mouse's face, a very bad one. She was two, so maybe she wouldn't mind...

"Hmm, you know," Nikki's sister continued. She drew a long, curly tail on her mouse. "Nikki and I went to school with a lot of the people here. We're all friends. It's really a small town, and this preschool serves three towns in the area. I think because they know us and Nikki especially, they're comfortable with him coming here in drag. Now, they don't like that he keeps coming here in practical Halloween costumes like vampires and Frankenstein, but they've always known he has pretty gothic fashion choices. You should have seen him in high school! But, that's their only gripe. They love that their kids get to meet a drag queen. They want them to be exposed to lots of different people. We brought a Catholic priest in here once, and one of Nikki's friends came here, too. She's a Wiccan high priestess."