Nate woke up with a squint. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a fedora and a false beard. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the outhouse was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited seven of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend three hours playing fun games like pool and solitaire. His mom was planning to make plenty of pot roast and lime sherbet for everyone. Nate would try to blow out all twenty-seven candles on the camouflage and chocolate brown cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Nate would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a roll of duct tape! He hoped it would be a dry roll of duct tape. His friend Don had said he would give him a spool of thread, and his mom always gave him cool stuff like the bowl she gave him last year. Nate could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a typhoon was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his fedora. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the lakeside. He would have to wear a pair of handcuffs instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his false beard.
He went downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like orange blossoms. His mom was standing there with a food processor in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a belly laugh.
"Hi Mommy!" Nate replied impatiently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pot roast," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra turmeric. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Nate replied blindly. "Do we have the lime sherbet ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," his mother replied unexpectedly. "It only has to boil for sixty-nine minutes."
"Okay," Nate replied sarcastically. "I'm gonna go to the outhouse."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chicken chow mein in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the outhouse first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Nate responded, as he sat down to his chicken chow mein. "Let's hang lots of khaki balloons and cover the bench and the mattress with aquamarine crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother carelessly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Clarisse Jiménez. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a Sham-Wow!."
"Kazow," Nate responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a fist bump. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."