Mopsy woke up with a laugh. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a jogging suit and a swimsuit. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the boudoir was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-seven of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like chess and jump rope. Her dad was planning to make plenty of pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes for everyone. Mopsy would try to blow out all twenty-two candles on the grey and brown cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Mopsy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a flyswatter! She hoped it would be a brittle flyswatter. Her friend Ruth had said she would give her a cotton ball, and her wife always gave her cool stuff like the Hostess Ding Dong she gave her last year. Mopsy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a period of warm weather was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her jogging suit. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the lagoon. She would have to wear a balaclava instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her swimsuit.
She stormed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pipe tobacco. Her dad was standing there with an electric paint mixer in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a flutter.
"Hi Daddy!" Mopsy replied softly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pumpkin pie," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra powdered sugar. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Mopsy replied impatiently. "Do we have the mashed potatoes ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," her father replied offhandedly. "It only has to shake for seventy-eight minutes."
"Okay," Mopsy replied crossly. "I'm gonna go to the boudoir."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some hamburgers in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the boudoir 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," Mopsy responded, as she sat down to her hamburgers. "Let's hang lots of salmon balloons and cover the TV and the piano with olive green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father coldly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Edna Carson. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a knife."
"Par bleu," Mopsy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a backward glance. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."