Karen woke up with a glare. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a bandana and a pair of briefs. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the outhouse was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like hide and seek and Russian roulette. Her mom was planning to make plenty of beef bouillon and pumpkin pie for everyone. Karen would try to blow out all three candles on the aqua and lavender cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Karen would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a shoe! She hoped it would be an original shoe. Her friend Hugo had said he would give her a dog collar, and her girlfriend always gave her cool stuff like the feather she gave her last year. Karen could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a snowstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her bandana. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cliff. She would have to wear a stethoscope instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of briefs.
She darted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like fresh coffee. Her mom was standing there with a cheesecloth in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a bound.
"Hi Mommy!" Karen replied clumsily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the beef bouillon," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra roast beef. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Karen replied nicely. "Do we have the pumpkin pie ready?"
"I'm going to wait until five o'clock to start that," her mother replied gingerly. "It only has to grill for fifty-three minutes."
"Okay," Karen replied warily. "I'm gonna go to the outhouse."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some tofu in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the outhouse first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Karen responded, as she sat down to her tofu. "Let's hang lots of yellow balloons and cover the pillow and the pool table with magenta crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother cautiously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Dierdre Soto. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a pair of chopsticks."
"Granular," Karen responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a glare. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."