Ruby woke up with a smile. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a name tag and a gunny sack. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the dungeon was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited eighteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like Snakes and Ladders and old maid. Her dad was planning to make plenty of hot dogs and cinnamon toast for everyone. Ruby would try to blow out all nineteen candles on the salmon and green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Ruby would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a hockey puck! She hoped it would be a ragged hockey puck. Her friend Celeste had said she would give her a pickle, and her grandma always gave her cool stuff like the flute she gave her last year. Ruby could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a gale was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her name tag. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the gully. She would have to wear a birthday suit instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her gunny sack.
She reeled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like onions. Her dad was standing there with a knife in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a snigger.
"Hi Daddy!" Ruby replied breathlessly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the hot dogs," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra extra virgin olive oil. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Ruby replied numbly. "Do we have the cinnamon toast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied immediately. "It only has to allow to rise in warm place for several hours for forty-eight minutes."
"Okay," Ruby replied languidly. "I'm gonna go to the dungeon."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some prune pudding in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the dungeon 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," Ruby responded, as she sat down to her prune pudding. "Let's hang lots of magenta balloons and cover the overstuffed chair and the china cabinet with turquoise crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father victoriously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Tamara Weinstein. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a Sham-Wow!."
"W00t," Ruby responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a coo. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."