Jennifer woke up with a sniff. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a pair of glasses and a blanket. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the oubliette was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited three of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like volleyball and Scrabble. Her mom was planning to make plenty of shrimp and ice cream for everyone. Jennifer would try to blow out all twenty candles on the chocolate brown and chartreuse cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Jennifer would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a rock! She hoped it would be a ridiculous rock. Her friend Willard had said he would give her a joint, and her sister-in-law always gave her cool stuff like the tablet computer she gave her last year. Jennifer could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hot, sunny day was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her pair of glasses. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the buffalo wallow. She would have to wear a beehive instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her blanket.
She ambled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like mildew. Her mom was standing there with a food processor in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a giggle.
"Hi Mommy!" Jennifer replied shyly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the shrimp," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra tofu. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Jennifer replied frantically. "Do we have the ice cream ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," her mother replied merrily. "It only has to fry for sixty-three minutes."
"Okay," Jennifer replied unexpectedly. "I'm gonna go to the oubliette."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some pretzels in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the oubliette first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Jennifer responded, as she sat down to her pretzels. "Let's hang lots of emerald green balloons and cover the filing cabinet and the coat rack with azure crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother deliberately. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Beatrice Moodle. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a dull knife."
"Bless your heart," Jennifer responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a hoot. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."