Stormy woke up with a honk. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a burqa and a pair of shin guards. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the garage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-nine of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like Parcheesi and checkers. Her dad was planning to make plenty of lamb curry and lobster bisque for everyone. Stormy would try to blow out all twenty-one candles on the jet black and lavender cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Stormy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a baseball! She hoped it would be a funny baseball. Her friend Stella had said she would give her a pain pill, and her fiancée always gave her cool stuff like the hammer she gave her last year. Stormy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a gale was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her burqa. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the mountaintop. She would have to wear a pair of earrings instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of shin guards.
She scurried downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like mountain air. Her dad was standing there with a corkscrew in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a wrinkled nose.
"Hi Daddy!" Stormy replied confidently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the lamb curry," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra wide egg noodles. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Stormy replied awkwardly. "Do we have the lobster bisque ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied crankily. "It only has to roast for two minutes."
"Okay," Stormy replied busily. "I'm gonna go to the garage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some roast turkey in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the garage 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," Stormy responded, as she sat down to her roast turkey. "Let's hang lots of amber balloons and cover the desk and the settee with tan crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father haughtily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Linda Greco. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a knife."
"Hmmm," Stormy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a coo. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."