Raúl woke up with a bound. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a badge and a sarong. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the nursery was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-five of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like duck duck goose and doctor. His dad was planning to make plenty of pretzels and doughnuts for everyone. Raúl would try to blow out all twenty-eight candles on the magenta and sparkly cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Raúl would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a football! He hoped it would be an imported football. His friend Tracy had said she would give him a cotton ball, and his main squeeze always gave him cool stuff like the ticket she gave him last year. Raúl could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a lightning storm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his badge. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the grassland. He would have to wear a mortarboard instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his sarong.
He danced downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like orange blossoms. His dad was standing there with a slotted spoon in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a death glare.
"Hi Daddy!" Raúl replied positively. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pretzels," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra cracker crumbs. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Raúl replied valiantly. "Do we have the doughnuts ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," his father replied suddenly. "It only has to refrigerate overnight for nine minutes."
"Okay," Raúl replied languidly. "I'm gonna go to the nursery."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some oyster on the half-shell in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the nursery first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Raúl responded, as he sat down to his oyster on the half-shell. "Let's hang lots of yellow balloons and cover the hammock and the coat rack with silver crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father sternly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Marjorie Pope. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an oven mitt."
"Tarnation," Raúl responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a yawn. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."