13. Gingerbread
Colchester...2096

Mamie had always helped her Babulya decorate biscuits. There were usually star-shaped biscuits with stars, and spice cookies she got to pour gobs of icing over, and even biscuits with sprinkles on them! Last year, she’d gotten to help cut out the stars, which had led to many misshapen figures and a lot of dropped dough. Babulya had said biscuits were like snowflakes, and no two were truly alike.

Sitting on a kitchen stool, feet dangling, Mamie held up two cookie cutters, pretending to have them walk around. Babulya had never made gingerbread biscuits before, but a new home meant new traditions. And that meant more biscuits!

As her babulya winked her approval, Mamie took her cue and began smooshing the cookie cutters into the rolled out biscuit dough. “Do you think…do gingerbread men know that they’re being cooked?” she asked, freeing a person-shaped cutout of dough and gingerly setting it on the baking sheet. “Or…is it like sitting by the fire?”

Babulya chuckled and switched out the full baking sheet for an empty one. “I don’t think gingerbread know anything, Mamie,” she said gently. “They’re only biscuits.”

Somehow, that was the most reassuring answer she could have given.