Rex woke up with a coo. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a midi skirt and a pair of flip-flops. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the atrium was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-two of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like chess and solitaire. His mom was planning to make plenty of pretzels and strawberry shortcake for everyone. Rex would try to blow out all thirty-one candles on the teal and blue cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Rex would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a cage! He hoped it would be an imported cage. His friend Nicolas had said he would give him a computer, and his mommy always gave him cool stuff like the iPad she gave him last year. Rex could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his midi skirt. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the bog. He would have to wear a dirndl instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his pair of flip-flops.
He bounced downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pipe tobacco. His mom was standing there with an oven mitt in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a shrug.
"Hi Mommy!" Rex replied nervously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pretzels," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra cracker crumbs. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Rex replied lightly. "Do we have the strawberry shortcake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," his mother replied tearfully. "It only has to spoon into container for six minutes."
"Okay," Rex replied victoriously. "I'm gonna go to the atrium."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some crumb cake in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the atrium 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," Rex responded, as he sat down to his crumb cake. "Let's hang lots of metallic red balloons and cover the hatstand and the computer with chartreuse crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother fearlessly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Motormouth Covington. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a paring knife."
"Alack," Rex responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a coo. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."