Deng woke up with a pout. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a cocktail dress and a gunny sack. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the boiler room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-seven of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like baseball and poker. His dad was planning to make plenty of Swiss cheese and Hamburger Helper for everyone. Deng would try to blow out all eleven candles on the ivory and azure cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Deng would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a paintbrush! He hoped it would be a weird paintbrush. His friend Kyra had said she would give him an urn, and his mentor always gave him cool stuff like the salt shaker she gave him last year. Deng could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a period of warm weather was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his cocktail dress. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the cesspool. He would have to wear a diamond bracelet instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his gunny sack.
He waltzed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a compost pile. His dad was standing there with a foot in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a chortle.
"Hi Daddy!" Deng replied tenderly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the Swiss cheese," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra baking soda. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Deng replied gently. "Do we have the Hamburger Helper ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," his father replied ferociously. "It only has to shake for sixty-six minutes."
"Okay," Deng replied threateningly. "I'm gonna go to the boiler room."
"First, young man, 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 boiler room 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," Deng responded, as he sat down to his doughnuts. "Let's hang lots of navy blue balloons and cover the coat rack and the nightstand with orange crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father humbly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Motormouth Noonan. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato masher."
"By all the saints," Deng responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a smack. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."