Cathedral

On a Saturday afternoon, Ann Weiss orders a cake at the bakery for her son Scotty’s birthday. Ann is struck by the baker’s terseness as she places the order. He isn’t rude but disinterested, as he promises that the cake will be ready on Monday. On the following Monday morning, a car hits Scotty as he walks to school with a friend. The driver speeds away, and Scotty gets up in a daze and walks home. He tells his worried mother what happened and suddenly passes out. An ambulance takes him to the hospital where doctors assure his parents he is in a deep sleep but will be fine when he wakes. That night, as Ann waits by his bedside and her husband, Howard decides to rush home for an hour. Inside, the phone rings, and Howard panics, certain that something happened to his son at the precise moment he decided to leave.

The voice at the other end tells Howard that no one picked up the cake he made. Confused, Howard hangs up on the man. As he takes a bath, the phone rings again, but the caller hangs up when he answers. Howard returns to the hospital and Ann worries that Scotty isn’t awake.