"In Raymond Carver's classic short story "A Small, Good Thing" (you may also remember it from Robert Altman's Shortcuts), a mom orders a cake for her son's birthday party. Shortly after, the kid gets hit by a car on his way to school and falls into a coma. The baker, unaware of what's happened, keeps calling the birthday boys' parents and telling them to pick up the goddamn cake. And then-spoiler alert- the kid dies."
"As the mom and the baker begin to argue, she breaks down and tells him that their son is dead. The baker is stricken, insists that they sit down, and begs for forgiveness. He drags over a few chairs and then serves the parents cinnamon rolls just out of the oven. "You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this," he says."
"My baker was a clueless woman who worked for a collection agency. She left me a few voicemail messages, which I totally ignored, and then she called again. I have no idea why I answered it the third time around-I never pick up if I don't recognize the number-but a few weeks ago, I had no idea why I was doing anything."
A mother orders a birthday cake and soon after her son is struck by a car and later dies. The baker repeatedly calls insisting the cake be picked up, then learns of the death and, stricken, offers warm cinnamon rolls and sustenance while telling the parents that eating is a small, good thing that helps people keep going. The narrator relates a parallel personal incident in which a collections agent demands $750 for an alleged red‑light camera ticket the narrator never received, leaving the narrator unsettled and defensive.
Read at Psychology Today
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