Clifton woke up with a smile. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a toga and a miniskirt. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the cage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited four of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like red rover and old maid. His mom was planning to make plenty of dry toast and roast Cornish game hen for everyone. Clifton would try to blow out all eight candles on the black and maroon cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Clifton would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a bag of ice! He hoped it would be a gruesome bag of ice. His friend Sean had said he would give him a football, and his wife always gave him cool stuff like the smart phone she gave him last year. Clifton could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a flood was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his toga. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the forest. He would have to wear a helmet instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his miniskirt.
He skidded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Lancôme. His mom was standing there with a strainer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a gurgle.
"Hi Mommy!" Clifton replied gruffly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the dry toast," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra flank steak. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Clifton replied grandly. "Do we have the roast Cornish game hen ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," his mother replied ruefully. "It only has to press for fourteen minutes."
"Okay," Clifton replied sleepily. "I'm gonna go to the cage."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some catfish stew in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the cage first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Clifton responded, as he sat down to his catfish stew. "Let's hang lots of white balloons and cover the footstool and the china hutch with tan crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother sleepily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Oona Matthews. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a fork."
"Awesome," Clifton responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a smile. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."