Helen woke up with a wrinkled nose. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a loincloth and a bowler hat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the rec room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited nineteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like croquet and billiards. Her dad was planning to make plenty of burritos and ham for everyone. Helen would try to blow out all thirty-one candles on the beige and tan cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Helen would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a tote bag! She hoped it would be a hand-made tote bag. Her friend Sissy had said she would give her a thumb drive, and her girlfriend always gave her cool stuff like the ruler she gave her last year. Helen 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 loincloth. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the neighborhood. She would have to wear a beret instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bowler hat.
She dashed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like baby lotion. Her dad was standing there with an electric paint mixer in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a snort.
"Hi Daddy!" Helen replied nimbly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the burritos," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra chopped pecans. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Helen replied energetically. "Do we have the ham ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," her father replied gratefully. "It only has to freeze for nine minutes."
"Okay," Helen replied peevishly. "I'm gonna go to the rec room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chicken chow mein in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the rec room first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Helen responded, as she sat down to her chicken chow mein. "Let's hang lots of olive green balloons and cover the coat rack and the safe with camouflage crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father properly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Stella Schmidt. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a chopstick."
"Abracadabra," Helen responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a raspberry. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."