Judy woke up with a chortle. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a nose ring and a straitjacket. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the attic was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like backgammon and tennis. Her dad was planning to make plenty of chicken chow mein and egg salad sandwich for everyone. Judy would try to blow out all twenty-eight candles on the chartreuse and forest green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Judy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a pink flamingo! She hoped it would be a hard pink flamingo. Her friend Nellie had said she would give her a hot potato, and her friend always gave her cool stuff like the coconut she gave her last year. Judy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a tornado was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her nose ring. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the canyon. She would have to wear a ring instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her straitjacket.
She crawled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like bleach. Her dad was standing there with a sharp knife in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a simper.
"Hi Daddy!" Judy replied unnaturally. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the chicken chow mein," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra corn oil. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Judy replied cleverly. "Do we have the egg salad sandwich ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied nervously. "It only has to arrange for eighty-three minutes."
"Okay," Judy replied frantically. "I'm gonna go to the attic."
"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 attic 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," Judy responded, as she sat down to her chicken pot pie. "Let's hang lots of black balloons and cover the end table and the sofa with violet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father nimbly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Carina Palomino. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an electric mixer."
"Inconceivable," Judy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a wag of the finger. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."