Calynn

Rebirth part 1

Finnish putting the butter meringue cream on the cake, Calynn Arianna Menken stepped back with a smile. She had been working on this cake for two days and now the only thing left was to put the raspberries on the top and put some eatable glitter all over it.

Calynn's mother was turning 50 tomorrow and Calynn's mother had begged her to make a cake and of course she had agreed, she loved to bake and decorate cakes. She turned around to get the berries from the fridge and sighed in annoyance when she saw that they were starting to mold.

"Mom!" Calynn called out. "I'm going to the store to buy more raspberries, do you need anything else?"

"I'm right here Cal, no need to shout." Irene Gwendolyn Menken, walked slowly into the kitchen, looking frail and tired.

"Mom, do you need anything?" Calynn asked again with a smile.

Calynn adored her mother and loved her completely and Irene loved her daughter above anything else even though Calynn's conception hadn't been consensual. Irene had been raped when she was 20 years old and instead of getting an abortion or even putting the child up for adoption, she loved the child with all off her being, giving her the name Calynn, meaning powerful in battle and Arianna which means holy.

"Pringles." Irene smiled a brittle smile as she placed a thin hand on her daughter's cheek.

Calynn had moved back in with her mother around 7 months ago when Irene had started getting sick. She was tired all the time, bruises appeared from the slightest touch and she lost weight at a rapid pace. Calynn had convinced her to go to the doctors who after an insufferable amount of test could determent that Irene suffered from both leukemia and bone cancer.

And so Calynn had moved back in with her mom to take care of her while she went through all the chemotherapy and medications. Calynn didn't mind and while her mother hated being dependent on anyone, having been a single mother from the age of 21, put herself through school while raising a child and then working her butt off to make sure said child would have anything she needed without actually making her a spoiled brat.

"Sure, I'll get pringles." Calynn laughed. "What flavor?"

"Spicy ones." Irene chuckled.

"I'll be back with the raspberries and the pringles as soon as possible." Calynn said as she shrugged her jacket on. "And don't touch the cake!"

"I wasn't going to." Irene denied but the smirk on her lips gave her away.

"Sure, you weren't." Calynn laughed and walked out the door. "Love you, mama."

"Love you too, Cal." Irene called back with a smile in her voice.

Calynn wasn't scared to walk alone late at night on a Friday for several reasons, one of the most prominent ones being that ever since she was a child her mother had hired several self-defense teachers and martial art instructors so that Calynn would never have to feel as helpless and go through what Irene herself had. Which made the 29-year-old feel pretty confident as she walked towards the store.

Calynn grabbed a basket as she walked into the store and started to make her way to the fruit and vegetable isle. She quickly grabbed some raspberries, spicy pringles, a couple of sodas and made her way to the counter.

"Hey Marv." Calynn said as she put her stuff on the counter.

"Hello, little one." Marv the owner of the store smiled at her. "How have you been?"

Marv, or rather Marvin, was an older gentle man in his 60 that had bought the store around 30 years ago and Calynn had grown up with him as a sort of grandfather/uncle. And while Calynn was something of a weirdo that didn't really care about most people, she did like Marv and loved him in her own way.