Gillian woke up with a flinch. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a gun belt and a veil. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the bedroom was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited fifteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like baseball and dominos. Her mom was planning to make plenty of country glazed ham and lamb curry for everyone. Gillian would try to blow out all seven candles on the brown and aquamarine cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Gillian would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an antenna! She hoped it would be a hard antenna. Her friend Clifford had said he would give her a cage, and her cousin always gave her cool stuff like the cigar she gave her last year. Gillian could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a blizzard was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her gun belt. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the veld. She would have to wear a pair of Crocs instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her veil.
She made a beeline downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like black pepper. Her mom was standing there with a meat thermometer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a face palm.
"Hi Mommy!" Gillian replied accidentally. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the country glazed ham," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra tofu. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Gillian replied wryly. "Do we have the lamb curry ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her mother replied quietly. "It only has to fry for thirty-one minutes."
"Okay," Gillian replied gracefully. "I'm gonna go to the bedroom."
"First, young lady, 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 bedroom first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Gillian responded, as she sat down to her tofu. "Let's hang lots of red balloons and cover the china hutch and the floor with scarlet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother calmly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Gretchen Falcone. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a dull knife."
"Ahoy," Gillian responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a smile. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."