Flour was already drifting across the blue laminate countertop, but the metal cookie cutter in Clara’s hand did not match any shape she had used in forty years of baking. It was heavy, lopsided, and entirely unrecognizable.
“This one does not look like a star or a tree, Dorothy.”
Clara touched the silver locket resting against her collarbone, her thumb tracing the smooth metal.
Dorothy adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses and leaned closer over the rolled gingerbread dough. She pointed a floured finger at the odd, bent piece of steel.
“It looks like a broken bell,” Dorothy said, speaking slowly and emphasizing every third word.
The hum of the thirty-year-old Sears Kenmore oven filled the quiet kitchen. Clara turned the cutter over in her hand, noticing a tiny scratch on the inner curve of the metal cutter.
“Did Albert buy this box at a garage sale?” Clara asked.
“He paid exactly four dollars for the whole tin,” Dorothy said. “And he never complained once about the contents.”
Clara frowned, tracing the scratch with her fingernail. The tin was supposed to contain the standard holiday shapes her family expected every December, the ones that kept them all coming back to the table. She wanted the kitchen to feel exactly as it had when Albert was still here.
“Will we be able to find a normal explanation for this awkward metal shape?” Clara asked.
Dorothy did not answer, her eyes fixed on the gray sky beyond the window.
By eleven, the kitchen smelled of molasses, and Benjamin was standing in the living room with his briefcase open on the sofa. He was tossing folders inside with quick, jerky movements.
“It is just a manufacturing mistake, Mother,” Benjamin said, his voice clipped and fast.
“Are you sure it is not some old-fashioned pattern?” Clara asked, holding the cutter out to him.
Benjamin did not look up from his papers. He jangled the loose keys in his trousers pocket, the sharp metallic sound cutting through the room.
“Throw it in the trash,” Benjamin said. “We have a strict schedule for Christmas Eve dinner, and I cannot be late for the partners.”
