Fuzz woke up with a grimace. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a diamond bracelet and a set of dentures. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the doghouse was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirteen of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like checkers and Candy Land. His dad was planning to make plenty of tofu and bread and butter for everyone. Fuzz would try to blow out all eight candles on the ivory and lime-green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Fuzz would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an iPod! He hoped it would be an authentic iPod. His friend Samina had said she would give him a clipboard, and his grandfather always gave him cool stuff like the pail she gave him last year. Fuzz could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a rainbow was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his diamond bracelet. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the plain. He would have to wear a pair of shorts instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his set of dentures.
He skidded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pipe tobacco. His dad was standing there with a chopstick in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a pucker.
"Hi Daddy!" Fuzz replied briskly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the tofu," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra dill weed. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Fuzz replied repeatedly. "Do we have the bread and butter ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," his father replied demurely. "It only has to braise for fifty-six minutes."
"Okay," Fuzz replied coolly. "I'm gonna go to the doghouse."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some catfish stew in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the doghouse 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 catfish stew. "Let's hang lots of striped balloons and cover the pillow and the bar stool with rose crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father humbly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Mia Nakamura. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato peeler."
"Grody to the max," Fuzz responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a giggle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."