Gloria woke up with a caress. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a visor and a fedora. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the auditorium was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-one of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like leapfrog and ring around the rosie. Her mom was planning to make plenty of clam chowder and oatmeal for everyone. Gloria would try to blow out all twenty candles on the purple and aquamarine cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Gloria would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a bag of potato chips! She hoped it would be a bent bag of potato chips. Her friend Papa had said he would give her a mousetrap, and her friend always gave her cool stuff like the egg shell she gave her last year. Gloria could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a dense fog was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her visor. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the park. She would have to wear a pair of suspenders instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her fedora.
She scampered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like potpourri. Her mom was standing there with a mixing spoon in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with an evil eye.
"Hi Mommy!" Gloria replied obediently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the clam chowder," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra liver. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Gloria replied demurely. "Do we have the oatmeal ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," her mother replied jokingly. "It only has to braise for seventy-eight minutes."
"Okay," Gloria replied ingeniously. "I'm gonna go to the auditorium."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some jambalaya in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the auditorium 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," Gloria responded, as she sat down to her jambalaya. "Let's hang lots of orange balloons and cover the china hutch and the wooden crate with amber crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother nervously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Stella Şerban. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a fork."
"Barf," Gloria responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a shrug. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."