Chapter 2: In which a red door is opened and a flour-sack baby is loved

Over the next several months, Emily and Kate continued their baking experiments, trying to create better recipes.  As they worked in the kitchen, they began to get big ideas.  "We could sell this at the farmer's market," mused Kate.  "Yeah," agreed Emily, "and we could probably get some stores or restaurants to sell it, too.  Then, maybe one day we could open a cafe!"

One night after staying late at Kate's, drinking coffee and eating chocolate lava cake, Emily went home to her Guilford Ave apartment and fell asleep.  While sleeping, she had the following dream:

It was dark outside and Emily was walking up to a street corner with a key in hand.  She walked up to a red shop door and unlocked it.  Inside was an empty cafe.  Emily walked through the cafe and up a set of stairs in the back.  When she reached the landing, she opened another door and pulled a string to turn on the light.  She was standing in an empty apartment.  Emily looked around with a satisfied smile.  She was in her new home!  The cafe downstairs was hers, too!  She looked down at her arms and saw that she was carrying a flour-sack baby.  She carried the flour-sack baby to the window and looked out to the dark street below.   She saw a young woman coming up the sidewalk carrying a red suitcase.  It was Kate!  Excited, Emily tapped on the window with her free hand and waved as Kate's face tilted up.  Kate cracked into a grin and held the suitcase up, waving wildly.  Emily laughed.  She knew Kate was moving in and they were going to be running a cafe downstairs.  She stepped back to the center of the room and happily held the flour-sack baby up in the air.  As she held it up to the light, she realized it was a real baby.  A very tiny, undeveloped baby.  It was so undeveloped, in fact, that it was see-through.  Emily held it up to the light and looked at all of the veins and the beating heart of the baby.  "It's beautiful,"  she said aloud.  "I will take care of you,"  she promised.

The next morning, Emily couldn't wait to tell Kate about her dream.  She ran around the block to Kate's apartment and shared the story over coffee.  They smiled at each other.  This is really going to happen, they agreed.  We will do this.