Wesley woke up with a wrinkled nose. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in an overcoat and a gorilla suit. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the nursery was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited sixteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like hide and seek and seven-up. Her dad was planning to make plenty of lamb curry and fish and chips for everyone. Wesley would try to blow out all thirteen candles on the navy blue and hot pink cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Wesley would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a dish! She hoped it would be a damp dish. Her friend Brook had said she would give her a hand puppet, and her grandma always gave her cool stuff like the box she gave her last year. Wesley could hardly wait!
She 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. She looked in her closet for her overcoat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the seacoast. She would have to wear a hearing aid instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her gorilla suit.
She walked downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like cherry pie. Her dad was standing there with a Sham-Wow! in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a sigh.
"Hi Daddy!" Wesley replied nonchalantly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the lamb curry," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra curry powder. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Wesley replied vacantly. "Do we have the fish and chips ready?"
"I'm going to wait until twelve o'clock to start that," her father replied woodenly. "It only has to smoke for eighty-five minutes."
"Okay," Wesley replied curiously. "I'm gonna go to the nursery."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some oatmeal in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the nursery 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," Wesley responded, as she sat down to her oatmeal. "Let's hang lots of maroon balloons and cover the ping-pong table and the billiard table with red crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father deliberately. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Pleasance Burner. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a piece of cheesecloth."
"Hah," Wesley responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a raspberry. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."