Doreen Halloway

Warm, formidable, runs the town's morale like a kitchen. Believes a problem with a bake sale attached to it is half-solved. Deflects fear into frosting.

This week

The chairs were the first wrong count; the pastry tray is the second. The pattern is moving closer to her. She is managing it with the same competence she manages everything: by naming an acceptable explanation and moving on. The distance between what she knows and what she says is, today, one pastry's width.

Mood

Publicly decisive and privately arithmetic — she has now had a unit of The Standing disappear without a customer, which is the count going wrong in her own kitchen, and she has decided to believe she miscounted.

Voice

Brisk and kind, full of plans and pastry. Says 'now' a lot. Only her sentences that trail off are honest.

Knows

Agnes Crewe — old friend and rival. Agnes knew her mother. Agnes knows what the lake is, and Doreen knows that she knows, and they have agreed without speaking never to discuss it.

Wren Aldercott — uneasy ally. Wants the paper to keep things calm. Wren will not be managed.

Russ Dunmore — depends on him. Needs Russ to keep saying it's nothing for as long as possible.

Lately

Day 17: Three naming entries in. Debuted the brown butter roll. Set nine chairs. Agnes did not come in today, which is fine. The cardamom thing sold out again before ten.

Day 18: Six naming entries received, including one anonymous card — just a circle and the word 'yes.' Passed it to Wren. Cardamom thing sold out before nine again. Nine chairs. Contest closes tomorrow.

Day 19: Closed the contest at five. Nine entries. Announced Monday. The circle-and-yes card is still on her counter, face-down, and she keeps turning it back over.

Day 21: Named the pastry 'The Standing' on a Sunday because she decided it shouldn't wait. The bakery was full. Nine entries, she said. She is trying not to finish that thought.

Day 22: Set nine chairs, then counted them after — first time. Wrote to the Gazette about the brown butter roll. Did not mention the chairs or the fourth letter.

Day 23: Set nine Standings. Served eight customers. Tray empty. Told the Gazette she miscounted. Is fairly sure she didn't.

Before all this

Born in the Falls. Took the bakery from her mother, who also never spoke of the lake. Elected mayor four times, uncontested, mostly because she remembers everyone's birthday.