The sky was gray. A very grayey gray. Like, even grayer than your usual very gray sky. Sophia was on the dog walk, walking her dog. Her collie was sniffing everything. A man with a gray beard had a card table set up, with a tray of cookies, and a sign "Cooks for Books". He was not wearing a cook hat.
"Excuse me, is there an event going on?"
"Mmm. I'm helping out with a fundraiser for the library," said the man.
"O yeah? Are there going to be more of you?"
"There should be." He looked at his wristwatch. It was on his wrist. "It's supposed to start at 10am."
"It's 10:15," said Sophia. The collie sniffed the table. Should he eat the cookies? Should he pee on the table leg? Sophia reined him back.
The man looked ahead. "Maybe the others are being fashionably late."
"Could I buy a cookie?" asked Sophia. "I'm Sophia, by the way," Sophia said. The collie sensed a squirrel behind a tree and stared intently. The tree was very wooden so he could not see the squirrel.
"Richard," said the man, shaking her hand. "I was going to charge a dollar. All the money goes to the library."
Sophia fished out a dollar and exchanged it for a cookie. "That's a good cookie. Did you make it yourself?"
"Oh yes," said Richard. "It gave me something to do. I don't have much to do nowadays."
"You got the crumb topping right."
"Raspberry bars: 1 1/2 cups flour, teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 cups oats, 1 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter, cup of raspberry jam. Melt the butter, mix all but the jam, put most in a casserole dish, press it down, lay down a layer of jam, sprinkle on the rest, oven at 375 for 35 minutes."
"I've done that, I think, but I use apricot," said Sophia.
"As long as it's tart," said Richard.
Richard sat at his table. Sophia nibbled her cookie and looked around the park. A jogger ran by. Well, no, the jogger was doing more of a jog. Or maybe a slow very up-and-down walk. But they were breathing heavily, which I guess is the point? There continued to be a lack of other cooks.
"Here, let me check this event of yours," said Sophia. "Cooks for Books, you say?"
"Yes," said Richard. Although he had not actually said that. Perhaps Sophia had read the "Cooks for Books" sign on his table.
Sophia poked at her cellphone. "Cooks for ... ah hah, a hah. Hm. Oh." Sophia glanced at Richard, then back. "well that explains ... oh. He he hm." Sophia stared at her cellphone, looking like she knew something that Richard didn't. Richard sat at his table and stared ahead not knowingly, as if he knew he was supposed to know what Sophia knew but didn't know the thing he didn't know.
"You say it's at 10am?" asked Sophia. "In Redmond, at the park by the river?"
"Yes."
"On the 13th."
"Yes."
"It's actually on the 14th."
Richard looked crestfallen. Which I think means his head went down, but it was more like his eyebrows going up and his jaw dropping a little. "I'm a day early? I don't know if the cookies will last that long."
"Actually, the 14th of September, not August."
"Ah. I'll definitely have to make another batch."
"And it's in Redmond Washington, not Redmond Oregon."
"Oh. That's far. I was thinking of our Oregon libraries."
"In 2003, not 2023."
Sophia and Richard spent a minute in silence. It felt like a whole 60 seconds. Richard was embarrassed, as if he had set up a table for a fundraiser in the wrong park on the wrong day of the wrong month 20 years too late.
"Would you like another cookie?" asked Richard.
Another couple was passing. Sophia flagged them down. "Come buy some cookies!" she said. "They're for a good cause! They're really good!" They bought some. Richard thanked them, and Sophia thanked them profusely.
"At least you picked a good day. It'd be really hot if it weren't overcast. Do you come to this park often?" asked Sophia.
"Let me check my calendar," said Richard. "Oh yes, I'll be here for a big band meetup next week. I was going to bring my trombone."
"You might want to check your dates on that."
"Hm," said Richard. "Yes. I might do that."
Some of Sophia's cookie dropped on the ground. The collie ate it. It was the best day ever.
After that Richard and Sophia were friends. Not Best Friends Forever. And not really super friends. (Though, when you get down to it, the Super Friends were Super, but they weren't really super Friends. I mean I don't recall Batman ever baking anyone cookies.) But when Sophia saw Richard, she'd make a point to come over and fuss over him and tell him he was wrong. Or if he was right, which he nearly always was, she'd remind him that he had been wrong in the past so he should doublecheck things.
This was first posted to reddit/r/WritingPrompts, in response to my own prompt, "The sky was a very grayey gray. Like, even grayer than your normal very gray sky." I was experimenting with a particular sort of narrator.
For those of you who prefer audio books, here it is again as an epic ballad.