Greta woke up with a frown. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a coonskin hat and a black belt. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the pantry was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like shuffleboard and Russian roulette. Her mom was planning to make plenty of cherries jubilee and squash blossom soup for everyone. Greta would try to blow out all twenty candles on the salmon and metallic red cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Greta would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an abacus! She hoped it would be a crude abacus. Her friend Horst had said he would give her a corsage, and her sister always gave her cool stuff like the coat check ticket she gave her last year. Greta could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a drizzle was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her coonskin hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cliff. She would have to wear a big grin instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her black belt.
She sallied forth downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Old Spice. Her mom was standing there with a bare foot in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a sigh.
"Hi Mommy!" Greta replied shakily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the cherries jubilee," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra wasabi powder. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Greta replied breathlessly. "Do we have the squash blossom soup ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," her mother replied menacingly. "It only has to fry for sixty-eight minutes."
"Okay," Greta replied rapidly. "I'm gonna go to the pantry."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some beans in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the pantry 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," Greta responded, as she sat down to her beans. "Let's hang lots of mauve balloons and cover the billiard table and the credenza with amber crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother unnaturally. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Sandra Hanks. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat tenderizer."
"Freaky," Greta responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with an air kiss. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."