Giselle woke up with a sniff. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a beard and a romper. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the nursery was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited fifteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like treasure hunt and charades. Her dad was planning to make plenty of pumpkin pie and country glazed ham for everyone. Giselle would try to blow out all twenty candles on the blue and chocolate brown cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Giselle would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a fossil! She hoped it would be a bizarre fossil. Her friend Tracy had said she would give her a compass, and her mother always gave her cool stuff like the joint she gave her last year. Giselle could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her beard. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the jungle. She would have to wear a pair of moon boots instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her romper.
She stormed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like chloroform. Her dad was standing there with a spatula in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a wrinkled nose.
"Hi Daddy!" Giselle replied grandly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pumpkin pie," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra codfish pieces. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Giselle replied sympathetically. "Do we have the country glazed ham ready?"
"I'm going to wait until nine o'clock to start that," her father replied queerly. "It only has to marinate for twenty-two minutes."
"Okay," Giselle replied irritably. "I'm gonna go to the nursery."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some doughnuts in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the nursery 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," Giselle responded, as she sat down to her doughnuts. "Let's hang lots of periwinkle balloons and cover the chair and the ironing board with scarlet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father strangely. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Linda Fink. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a dull knife."
"Rubbish," Giselle responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snarl. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."