Ian woke up with a kiss. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a negligee and a set of vampire fangs. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the cage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-six of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like shuffleboard and charades. His dad was planning to make plenty of pretzels and dry toast for everyone. Ian would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the maroon and black cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Ian would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a boomerang! He hoped it would be a burned boomerang. His friend Rose had said she would give him a rock, and his aunt always gave him cool stuff like the coconut she gave him last year. Ian could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a flood was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his negligee. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the moonscape. He would have to wear a sweater instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his set of vampire fangs.
He marched downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a chocolate factory. His dad was standing there with a knife in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a grimace.
"Hi Daddy!" Ian replied calmly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pretzels," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra celery seed. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Ian replied anxiously. "Do we have the dry toast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," his father replied timidly. "It only has to heat for seventy-five minutes."
"Okay," Ian replied blankly. "I'm gonna go to the cage."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some tofu in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the cage first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Ian responded, as he sat down to his tofu. "Let's hang lots of orange balloons and cover the water bed and the billiard table with peach crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father bitterly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Jill Marks. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a wooden spoon."
"Turn blue," Ian responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a cringe. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."