Mrs. Bell's Doughnut Shop

 

Mrs. Bell’s Doughnut Shop

 

Daddy worked in Malden Square at Mrs. Bell's Doughnut Shop. I don't know who Mrs. Bell was. The doughnut shop was owned by Al, and that’s what I called him.  I liked him a lot. He was skinny, and a little bald, but he had some red hair and a red mustache. Like everyone else at Mrs. Bell's, Al was always glad to see me when I came in. He'd say, "Well, look who's here! It's Kay!"  I'd always tell him  he was wrong, and then I'd tell him who I was that day. Sometimes I was Polkadottie, sometimes Princess Summerfallwinterspring, or some kind of good fairy. And sometimes I was even just myself. Whenever I came to the store, Al would call me whoever I was the last time I came in, but no matter what he guessed, he was always wrong.

 When Mummy took me to the doughnut shop, she would take me around to say hello to everyone. I knew Esther Rose, who washed dishes, and Tommy Ray, who cleaned the store. I knew all the waitresses, but my favorite was Prissy. She and Mummy were friends, and sometimes Prissy came to birthday parties at our house.

But the best thing was watching Daddy make doughnuts. He stood behind a window real near where people sat at the counters, so they could watch him too. All those people had to stay on the restaurant side of the window, though, but I could walk right back and watch Daddy close up. He would mix the dough with his hands in a giant silver-colored mixing bowl. And when it was mixed enough, he’d flop it onto the cloth on his work bench, and he’d scrape the dough off his hands with his fingers. I liked the way he sprinkled the dough with flour before he kneaded it, and then rolled the dough out. I would watch his hands move so fast with the doughnut cutter. Sometimes he would set cooking racks of doughnuts into the bubbling hot grease of the fryolator. He’d use two long sticks to turn the doughnuts over in the hot grease, and he’d do it so fast, his hands would almost fly.

Sometimes Daddy took me with him to the back room, where the raise dough was proofing. And sometimes I went with him to the jelly pump so he could fill the jelly doughnuts. And I liked to watch him dip already fried raise doughnuts into the honey dip glaze. I got to see everything.

I loved Mrs. Bell's. I loved the small white tiles of the floor, the big round top on the mirrors on the wall for every booth. I liked the way the counter turned a corner, and I loved the cases for the doughnuts and all the other things Daddy made. I could look through the glass of the case at biscuits, lemon squares, apple squares, and muffins, and I could see the trays of doughnuts in the tall cases against the wall. My Daddy made all of them. He was a very good baker. He made the best doughnuts in the whole wide world.

                                                        Kate Lydon Varley