Assignment:

• Genre: ghost story
• Word: appointment
• Action/Subject: baking a cake

Story (99 words, per Microsoft Word):

Marcella lays out the ingredients she thinks Bobby’s cake requires. It’ll be tricky: she’s “measuring” from memory, because Bobby — bless his jump-the-gun soul — has already discarded her recipe files, and the only remaining cookbook requires a Foreman grill. Luckily, she knows Bobby will be late (a podiatrist appointment on his way home).

Bobby’s astonished when he comes in, changes out of his black suit, enters the kitchen. The big word on top reads BIRTHDY, and the countertop’s a mess. But what the— who made the damned cake? Who the hell was cremated this morning, if not Marcella?