Erica woke up with a shout. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a smartwatch and a pair of boxing gloves. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the garage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like pool and ring around the rosie. Her mom was planning to make plenty of spaghetti and ramen noodles for everyone. Erica would try to blow out all twenty-seven candles on the forest green and beige cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Erica would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a whistle! She hoped it would be an ordinary whistle. Her friend Broderick had said he would give her a shoe, and her dad always gave her cool stuff like the diary she gave her last year. Erica could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a flood was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her smartwatch. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the treetop. She would have to wear a few fabulous rags instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of boxing gloves.
She crept downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pipe tobacco. Her mom was standing there with a food processor in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a yawn.
"Hi Mommy!" Erica replied wryly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the spaghetti," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra baking powder. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Erica replied wryly. "Do we have the ramen noodles ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," her mother replied briskly. "It only has to melt for twenty-nine minutes."
"Okay," Erica replied crankily. "I'm gonna go to the garage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some doughnuts in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the garage 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," Erica responded, as she sat down to her doughnuts. "Let's hang lots of sea green balloons and cover the bed and the chest of drawers with grey crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother clumsily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Jenny Norton. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a cheesecloth."
"Durn," Erica responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a stiff upper lip. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."