From the Desk of Zoe Washington

Zoe goes to the privacy of her room and reads the letter. She is surprised and confused; her father sounds nice. He calls her “Little Tomato” in the greeting (8); brings up the record player his father owned and a Stevie Wonder single, “Isn’t She Lovely”; mentions Zoe’s mother’s knack for special birthday celebrations, and claims he thinks of Zoe every day. Confusingly for Zoe—as this is the first letter she ever received from Marcus—he mentions “these letters” (8) regarding never hearing back from her but understanding why she cannot write. He signs the letter “Love, Daddy” (9). Zoe considers writing back or throwing the letter away. When her mom knocks on the door, she hides the letter in her bed. Mom says Trevor is at the door. Zoe does not want to see her “ex-best friend” (11), but Mom insists.

Trevor and his mother Patricia are at the door. Zoe can tell that Trevor does not want to be there and that he still does not understand why she feels he betrayed her. In interior monologue, Zoe reveals that Trevor lives in the other side of their duplex; they typically spend time together all summer, talking on the shared porch, watching movies, riding bikes, and baking, especially when Jasmine and Maya are away at camp and on trips. This summer looks to be very lonely though, as Maya will be away in San Francisco, Jasmine is moving to Maryland, and Zoe has no plans to forgive Trevor for hurting her feelings. Trevor’s school team basketball jersey annoys Zoe, and when Patricia goes with Mom for a cupcake, Zoe tells Trevor, “I thought you’d be hanging out with one of your teammates” (16). Zoe opens their gift when they go; it is a cookbook she wanted by Ruby Willow, a young pastry chef who won a cooking competition called Kids Bake Challenge! on the Food Network. Mom tells Zoe that Trevor told his mother to get it; Zoe assumes that happened before their falling out.

Zoe sits on the porch steps on a lovely summer Sunday morning. She decides to draft a letter to Marcus in her new journal from Jasmine. Just as she begins, Trevor comes out from his side of the duplex and sits on his side of the shared steps. Zoe tries to ignore him, then asks if he must be there. Trevor points out that he is on his side. Zoe puts her earbuds back in—she is listening to “Isn’t She Lovely”—and debates how to greet her father in the letter. She scratches out the “Dear” as she cannot come up with what to call Marcus—she already calls her stepdad, Paul, “Dad.” She decides to starts with just “Hi.” Trevor asks what she is writing, but Zoe tells him she is not speaking to him. She stands to go inside, but the letter falls from the back of the journal and Trevor sees it. He asks if it is from her father in prison: “He’s in there because he killed somebody, right?” (24). Zoe is shocked; she never told Trevor that. He says he overheard her mom telling his mother last year. Trevor wants to know why Zoe is not talking to him, but Zoe refuses to repeat aloud what she heard him say about her, insisting instead that he already knows. She threatens to never forgive him if he tells anyone about the letter. Trevor says he will not tell. Zoe goes to her room where she can “focus on what really matter[s]” (26).

Zoe writes a letter to her father, telling him that she is not sure what to call him and that she is enjoying Stevie Wonder. She thinks of asking him why he committed the murder but decides against it. She does ask why he called her “Little Tomato.” She recopies the letter onto her nice stationery that reads “From the Desk of Zoe Washington” across the top. Her grandmother got the stationery for her on her last birthday and it has been unused till now. When Zoe starts to leave the house for the corner mailbox, she realizes Trevor and two basketball friends, Lincoln and Sean, are outside playing basketball. Lincoln and Sean are the friends that Zoe overheard Trevor disparaging her to. She refuses to go past them after what they said about her, so she returns to her room, irritated and feeling trapped. She looks through a notebook filled with quotes she, Jasmine, and Maya contributed together. Missing them, she texts their group chat, but she knows they will not reply anytime soon as Maya is away at camp and Jasmine’s grandmother keeps her from her phone most of the time.

Zoe turns her attention to her cookbook, which reminds her of Ruby Willow’s big win on Kids Bake Challenge!. She rooted for Ruby all season. Going online to show’s website, Zoe discovers that now that she is 12, she can apply to be on the show herself with her parents’ permission. Happy again, she watches an episode. When the boys leave outside, she mails the letter.

On the Saturday morning after Zoe sends the letter, Zoe, her mom, and her stepdad Paul have breakfast at a restaurant called the Broken Egg. She brings up the Food Network show and all the benefits that Ruby Willow won, including $20,000 and the cookbook deal. She cannot answer all the questions her parents have—such as how the participants attend school while filming episodes—but they agree to look at the web site and think about it. The next day at the market, Mom explains that she and Paul arranged for a once-a-week internship session for Zoe with Ariana at Ari’s Cakes. If Zoe proves herself there, her parents will allow her to apply for Kids Bake Challenge! at the end of the summer. The deadline for applications is September 12.

Zoe is thrilled and grateful; she is excited to learn baking skills from Ariana. Also, she can still check the mail first on her internship day (to look for letters from Marcus) because she will be home shortly after noon. On a whim, she asks her mother if she could communicate with Marcus at some point. Mom looks worried and tells Zoe she will not allow communication: “When you’re an adult, if that’s what you want, I can’t stop you. But right now, you’re still a child” (44). Zoe does not want anyone to treat her like a child. She realizes she must keep the letters a secret.

Walking into the bakery for her first morning, Zoe notices a woman giving Dad and her “‘the look’” (46), a curious, worried stare that questions why a young Black girl and white man would be together. Zoe makes a pointed effort to call Paul “Dad” loudly so the woman will disregard them.

Inside the bakery, Zoe discovers a crowded store; Ariana explains that the Fourth of July is their busiest day of summer. After Dad leaves, Ariana introduces Zoe to Liz, a culinary school graduate piping icing quickly onto fresh cupcakes; Corey, a Boston University student who works for Ariana in the summer; and Vincent and Rosa, older pastry chefs mixing red velvet batter. Zoe is disappointed when Ariana sets her up assembling bakery boxes for the cupcakes. She offers to help mix batter or decorate cupcakes, but Ariana needs the boxes, and Zoe remembers that Ariana will be advising her parents later in the summer regarding the baking competition. Zoe puts on a smile and starts folding boxes. Her mind wanders to her letter to Marcus, and she panics momentarily over the thought of being “pen pals with a murderer” (54). She cannot unsend the letter, so she attends to the boxes and watches Vincent prep the batter for baking.