Shane woke up with a stiff upper lip. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a suit of armor and a dunce cap. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the porch was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-five of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like Scrabble and hearts. His dad was planning to make plenty of bonbons and mulligan stew for everyone. Shane would try to blow out all seventeen candles on the sea green and orange cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Shane would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a crate! He hoped it would be a funny crate. His friend Babs had said she would give him a telephone book, and his grandfather always gave him cool stuff like the diary she gave him last year. Shane could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a tornado was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his suit of armor. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the backyard. He would have to wear a set of vampire fangs instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his dunce cap.
He loped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Juicy Fruit gum. His dad was standing there with a corkscrew in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a bound.
"Hi Daddy!" Shane replied angrily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the bonbons," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra egg white. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Shane replied pitifully. "Do we have the mulligan stew ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," his father replied slowly. "It only has to deep fry for fifty-four minutes."
"Okay," Shane replied boldly. "I'm gonna go to the porch."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some fondue in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the porch 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," Shane responded, as he sat down to his fondue. "Let's hang lots of ivory balloons and cover the wooden crate and the wine rack with black crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father warily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Pearl Kuma. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a dull knife."
"Mommy," Shane responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a caress. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."