Fuzz woke up with a flutter. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a pair of jeans and a shirt. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the nursery was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited eleven of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like dodge ball and charades. His dad was planning to make plenty of corn on the cob and pretzels for everyone. Fuzz would try to blow out all twenty-one candles on the chocolate brown and burgundy cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Fuzz would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a firecracker! He hoped it would be a smelly firecracker. His friend Elinor had said she would give him a snail, and his girlfriend always gave him cool stuff like the pickle she gave him last year. Fuzz could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a gale was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his pair of jeans. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the circus tent. He would have to wear a diamond necklace instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his shirt.
He blundered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like smoked fish. His dad was standing there with a meat tenderizer in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a blush.
"Hi Daddy!" Fuzz replied timidly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the corn on the cob," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra cinnamon. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Fuzz replied breathlessly. "Do we have the pretzels ready?"
"I'm going to wait until three o'clock to start that," his father replied thankfully. "It only has to scramble for sixty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Fuzz replied cruelly. "I'm gonna go to the nursery."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some prune pudding in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the nursery 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," Fuzz responded, as he sat down to his prune pudding. "Let's hang lots of violet balloons and cover the casket and the bar stool with orange crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father cruelly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Eve Patterson. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato peeler."
"Spiffy," Fuzz responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a beam. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."