Bradley woke up with a snarl. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a vest and a skeleton costume. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the rec room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twelve of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like treasure hunt and Cootie. His dad was planning to make plenty of steak and cinnamon toast for everyone. Bradley would try to blow out all twelve candles on the maroon and tan cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Bradley would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a boomerang! He hoped it would be a handy boomerang. His friend Julie had said she would give him a hot potato, and his dad always gave him cool stuff like the calculator she gave him last year. Bradley could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hot, sunny day was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his vest. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the jungle. He would have to wear a beehive instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his skeleton costume.
He set out downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pine trees. His dad was standing there with an oven mitt in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a sigh.
"Hi Daddy!" Bradley replied strangely. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the steak," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra corn oil. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Bradley replied deliberately. "Do we have the cinnamon toast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eight o'clock to start that," his father replied silently. "It only has to braise for forty-four minutes."
"Okay," Bradley replied unexpectedly. "I'm gonna go to the rec room."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chopped liver in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the rec room first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Bradley responded, as he sat down to his chopped liver. "Let's hang lots of metallic red balloons and cover the fainting couch and the bench with lime-green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father hysterically. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, So-Yeng Cairns. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a grater."
"Dang it," Bradley responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a frown. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."