Eppie woke up with a flutter. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in an overcoat and a shirt. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the guest room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-one of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like Mother May I and old maid. Her dad was planning to make plenty of French fries and burritos for everyone. Eppie would try to blow out all eight candles on the chocolate brown and lime-green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Eppie would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a toy! She hoped it would be a huge toy. Her friend Marcie had said she would give her a pen, and her mother-in-law always gave her cool stuff like the teacup she gave her last year. Eppie could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a drought was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her overcoat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the backyard. She would have to wear a poncho instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her shirt.
She sashayed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like an old goat. Her dad was standing there with a potato peeler in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with an evil eye.
"Hi Daddy!" Eppie replied urgently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the French fries," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra rum. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Eppie replied truculently. "Do we have the burritos ready?"
"I'm going to wait until three o'clock to start that," her father replied sorrowfully. "It only has to place on serving dish for seventy-eight minutes."
"Okay," Eppie replied jokingly. "I'm gonna go to the guest room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some apple pie in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the guest room first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Eppie responded, as she sat down to her apple pie. "Let's hang lots of sea green balloons and cover the chair and the mattress with aquamarine crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father pitifully. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Ellen Truong. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a cheesecloth."
"Begad," Eppie responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snicker. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."