O:JA&L Flash Nonfiction
Personal Essay, Memoir, or Vignette
Janelle Cordero
DONUT PARADE
There’s a man slumped over his steering wheel in the parking lot, a woman tells the cashier at the donut shop. I tapped on the window, she says, but he didn’t move. Hard to say if he’s breathing—could be drugs. We’ll take care of it, the cashier says, and hands the woman a brown paper bag with two apple fritters inside. Then she puts her coat on and motions to another woman in the back who’s icing maple bars with a spatula. I can go check on him, says the guy sitting a few booths down, the one who came in carrying a long board and a ukulele. The cashier waves him off, slides her phone and a pack of smokes into her pocket. The two women leave the store and we customers are left staring at each other, raising our eyebrows and shrugging our shoulders. We look around at the twinkling icicle lights hanging from the front windows, the ripped white cushions on the booths, all seventeen kinds of donuts behind the glass counter. The gray morning light is misty with sugar and oil. They’re gone for a good ten minutes before the back door opens and we hear footsteps, laughter. The women take their coats off and one places what looks like an airsoft gun on the back counter. So, I say to the cashier, is the guy okay? Sure, she says, just doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Like what, I want to ask, but instead I leave her alone as she stocks the fridge with half-pints of chocolate milk. We’re going to smell like donuts all day, I say to my boyfriend’s 12-year-old as we leave the shop. That’s not a bad thing, he says. And I remember his words even now, hours later as I put on my wool coat to leave the office, to drive home, to write about this morning and all the other sweet mornings in this life. No, I think, not a bad thing at all.
About the writer:
Janelle Cordero is a poet, artist, and educator living in Spokane, Washington. Her writing has appeared in dozens of literary journals, including Driftwood Press, Jet Fuel Review and Hobart, while her paintings have been featured in venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. Janelle is the author of five books of poetry, including Talk Louder (Papeachu Press, April 2024). As a fifth-generation resident of eastern Washington, Janelle has a deep love for cedar groves, lilacs, and small towns with one main street.
Image: Jalopy by O:JA&L staff creative. AI-assisted digital image. Proprietary image. 2025.
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