Perhaps the fact that they could keep customers waiting like this was a sign of confidence, rather than rudeness.
-- Narrator (Afternoon at the Bakery paragraph 9)

Importance: The narrator heads into the bakery to purchase a cake for her dead son’s 18th birthday. At first, no one is there behind the counter. The narrator considers initially that this is a sign of the quality of the baked goods, but later learns that the young woman who runs the bakery is upset about something. What this is, the narrator does not know and does not care.

Six. He’ll always be six. He’s dead.
-- Narrator (Afternoon at the Bakery paragraph 22)

Importance: The narrator explains to the regular customer why she has come in to the bakery. It is because she is buying a birthday cake for her son, who has been dead for 12 years. The narrator reveals the death of her son led to the unraveling of her life. She attempted suicide by suffocation...