Terri woke up with a guffaw. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a cocktail dress and a stovepipe hat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the front porch was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like Rummy and hopscotch. Her mom was planning to make plenty of tortillas and wienerschnitzel for everyone. Terri would try to blow out all sixteen candles on the sea green and mauve cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Terri would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a baseball! She hoped it would be an aromatic baseball. Her friend Aristotle had said he would give her a deck of cards, and her mother-in-law always gave her cool stuff like the ball she gave her last year. Terri 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 cocktail dress. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the oasis. She would have to wear a pair of jackboots instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her stovepipe hat.
She scooted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a hospital. Her mom was standing there with a wooden spoon in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a stiff upper lip.
"Hi Mommy!" Terri replied daintily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the tortillas," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra salmon. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Terri replied lovingly. "Do we have the wienerschnitzel ready?"
"I'm going to wait until nine o'clock to start that," her mother replied accidentally. "It only has to fry sarcastically in electronic skillet for eighty-eight minutes."
"Okay," Terri replied quietly. "I'm gonna go to the front porch."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some apple pie in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the front porch 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," Terri responded, as she sat down to her apple pie. "Let's hang lots of metallic red balloons and cover the overstuffed chair and the china hutch with turquoise crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother truculently. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Flo Pavlov. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a sharp knife."
"Yippee," Terri responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a titter. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."