Pleasance 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 corset and a pair of booties. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the linen closet was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-three of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like Candy Land and jump rope. Her dad was planning to make plenty of burritos and beans for everyone. Pleasance would try to blow out all thirty-four candles on the carrot-orange and beige cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Pleasance would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a corncob! She hoped it would be a hard corncob. Her friend Marybel had said she would give her a rubber stamp, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the hair dryer she gave her last year. Pleasance could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a blizzard was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her corset. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the crime scene. She would have to wear a mortarboard instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of booties.
She clambered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like marijuana. Her dad was standing there with an egg cutter in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a pound of the chest.
"Hi Daddy!" Pleasance replied cheerfully. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the burritos," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra tarragon. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Pleasance replied threateningly. "Do we have the beans ready?"
"I'm going to wait until nine o'clock to start that," her father replied dreamily. "It only has to grill for thirty minutes."
"Okay," Pleasance replied silently. "I'm gonna go to the linen closet."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some roast Cornish game hen in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the linen closet 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," Pleasance responded, as she sat down to her roast Cornish game hen. "Let's hang lots of green balloons and cover the stairway and the stairway with lime-green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father innocently. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, June Jacobsen. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a spoon."
"Get out," Pleasance responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a belly laugh. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."