Mark woke up with a grimace. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a dog collar and a badge. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the basement was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-eight of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like hide and seek and roulette. His mom was planning to make plenty of macaroni and roast turkey for everyone. Mark would try to blow out all six candles on the teal and burgundy cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Mark would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a feather! He hoped it would be a heavy feather. His friend John Paul had said he would give him a toilet plunger, and his mom always gave him cool stuff like the bullet she gave him last year. Mark could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a period of warm weather was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his dog collar. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the pond. He would have to wear a pair of bell-bottoms instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his badge.
He slumped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like caramel corn. His mom was standing there with an oven mitt in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a simper.
"Hi Mommy!" Mark replied gleefully. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the macaroni," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra corn flakes. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Mark replied curiously. "Do we have the roast turkey ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," his mother replied humbly. "It only has to grill for thirty-six minutes."
"Okay," Mark replied unexpectedly. "I'm gonna go to the basement."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some egg salad sandwich in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the basement first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Mark responded, as he sat down to his egg salad sandwich. "Let's hang lots of orange balloons and cover the workbench and the pool table with camouflage crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother majestically. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Ellen Miller. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a knife."
"Exaltations," Mark responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a frown. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."