Carmen woke up with a pucker. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a pair of earmuffs and a diamond necklace. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the hall was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like old maid and Monopoly. Her mom was planning to make plenty of chocolate-covered ants and tortillas for everyone. Carmen would try to blow out all twenty-six candles on the aqua and chartreuse cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Carmen would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a bat! She hoped it would be a multicolored bat. Her friend Elmer had said he would give her a piece of candy, and her main squeeze always gave her cool stuff like the bottle of painkillers she gave her last year. Carmen could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her pair of earmuffs. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the circus tent. She would have to wear a set of pink foam curlers instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her diamond necklace.
She scurried downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like flowers. Her mom was standing there with a chopstick in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a sigh.
"Hi Mommy!" Carmen replied truculently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the chocolate-covered ants," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra peanuts. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Carmen replied urgently. "Do we have the tortillas ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," her mother replied jokingly. "It only has to sauté for fifty-four minutes."
"Okay," Carmen replied strangely. "I'm gonna go to the hall."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some beef bouillon in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the hall 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," Carmen responded, as she sat down to her beef bouillon. "Let's hang lots of silver balloons and cover the armoire and the washing machine with purple crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother ingeniously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Shirley Pythagoras. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato peeler."
"Piffle," Carmen responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a shrug. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."