Was missing Jayne Anne Phillips since "Machine Dreams"
Here's a comeback (maybe just for me ;) from Granta:

'Termite's Birthday, 1959'

"Lark is only seventeen but has a lot of responsibilites. Looking after Termite is one of them: 'Nonie is our guardian and our aunt but I'm Termite's sister. In a way he's more mine than anyone else's. He'll be mine for longer, is what Nonie says.'

Nonie hates the idea of blue cake, she says it looks like something old and spoiled, too old to eat, though it's light and delicate and flavoured with anise. But Termite likes it, and he likes pink cake that tastes of almond, and mostly he likes me putting the batter in different bowls, holding them in the crook of his arm while I bend over him, stirring. I tell him how fast a few drops of colour land dense as tinted black and turn the mix pastel. I make three thin layers, pale blue and pink and yellow, and I put three pans in to bake, shut the door of the oven fast to pretend I'm not making everything still hotter.

'Hot as Hades today,' I tell Termite, and I move his chair so he gets the hint of breath from the window. The radio cord still reaches and he turns the knob with his wrist, slow or fast, like a safe-cracker, like there's some sense to the sounds, the static and the interrupted news."

[read on]