Madison woke up with a sniffle. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a garland and a cummerbund. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the laundry room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited sixteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like leapfrog and volleyball. Her dad was planning to make plenty of roast Cornish game hen and fried okra for everyone. Madison would try to blow out all twenty candles on the red and purple cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Madison would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a pair of dice! She hoped it would be an odd pair of dice. Her friend Madison had said she would give her a napkin, and her wife always gave her cool stuff like the deck of cards she gave her last year. Madison could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a bit of precipitation was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her garland. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cornfield. She would have to wear a hoop skirt instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her cummerbund.
She skipped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like onions. Her dad was standing there with a cheesecloth in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a wag of the finger.
"Hi Daddy!" Madison replied silently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the roast Cornish game hen," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra cream of tomato soup. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Madison replied kindly. "Do we have the fried okra ready?"
"I'm going to wait until twelve o'clock to start that," her father replied nervously. "It only has to marinate for fifteen minutes."
"Okay," Madison replied surreptitiously. "I'm gonna go to the laundry room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chicken pot pie in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the laundry room 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," Madison responded, as she sat down to her chicken pot pie. "Let's hang lots of white balloons and cover the toilet and the TV with scarlet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father proudly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Minnie Yastremski. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a wooden spoon."
"Petunia," Madison responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a fist bump. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."