Amina Brown

She says, baby, let me check my schedule.

Changes the subject, hangs up the phone.

I wait a week.

I call back again.

Hey, grandma, I just wanted to touch base about this again, because my birthday's coming up, and I thought maybe you could come to my house.

We could bake a cake together.

She said, now, Mina,

That was so long ago, I don't even know if I remember how to bake those cakes anymore, changes the subject and hangs up the phone again.

I wait one more week.

I call her back, Grandma, hey, my birthday's coming up, like right here, and I thought we could come to an agreement about you coming to my house, baking a cake.

She says, Mina, I got to tell you something.

Now I know you thought I made those cakes from scratch.

But me and I was, I was using a box mix.

And I don't know if you've ever heard the sound of your childhood deflated.

But this is what it sounds like because, no.

Not my grandma, my grandma has no use for a cake mix.

My grandma surely gets the eggs directly from the chickens.

I mean, surely when my grandma needs flour, she thrashes the wheat herself, no.

My grandmother does not need a cake mix.

She said, and baby, I don't even know if they make that mix I used to use anymore.