Charlene woke up with a backward glance. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a midi skirt and a coat of mail. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the family room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited eighteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like charades and marbles. Her mom was planning to make plenty of burritos and mulligan stew for everyone. Charlene would try to blow out all thirty candles on the brilliant orange and olive drab cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Charlene would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a hand puppet! She hoped it would be a flaky hand puppet. Her friend Jackson had said he would give her a paper clip, and her grandma always gave her cool stuff like the stopwatch she gave her last year. Charlene could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a dense fog was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her midi skirt. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the glen. She would have to wear a tie instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her coat of mail.
She trotted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like moldy leftovers. Her mom was standing there with a candy thermometer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a hug.
"Hi Mommy!" Charlene replied vigorously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the burritos," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra Hershey Bar. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Charlene replied immediately. "Do we have the mulligan stew ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eight o'clock to start that," her mother replied testily. "It only has to fry for thirty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Charlene replied sorrowfully. "I'm gonna go to the family room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some sauerkraut in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the family room 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," Charlene responded, as she sat down to her sauerkraut. "Let's hang lots of carrot-orange balloons and cover the nightstand and the stool with silver crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother clumsily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Kim Miles. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a melon baller."
"Whew," Charlene responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a backward glance. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."