Down the Rabbit Hole

Fun and Games

Lacey sighed and blew the hair out of her eyes as she hefted the shopping bags out of the car.
"You got it all?" Sophia asked as she opened the front door for them.
"Yep." Lacey called out as she struggled up the driveway.
Lacey had been staying in Miami for over 2 months now. She loved it here, the weather was amazing and there was so much to do. The four older ladies had become like family to her, in fact she even called them her aunts. Most mornings she helped her Aunt Blanche out at the Art Gallery she worked at, and they she'd come back and help Sophia out around the house.
As she crossed the living room and into the kitchen, she heard her Aunt Dorothy say;
"Aren't you finished with the hor'derves yet?" Her Aunt Blanche was at the counter preparing a salad.
"No I'm still working on the celery sticks." She dumped the shopping bags down and Sophia began to unpack them. As they began to put the groceries away her Aunt Rose walked into the kitchen, giggling.
"Did you finish the decorations Rose?" Dorothy asked.
"No, I haven't yet, I kind of got side tracked." Rose giggled as she held up a balloon that looked like a mouse. "Look!"
"This is what you've been doing for the past 45 minutes?" Dorothy asked, exasperated.
"Uhuh." Rose grinned. "Isn't he cute? I call him Scotty." She replied. Dorothy reached out and popped the balloon between her hands. Rose looked at her, stunned.
"Now you can call him garbage. Help Blanche with the hor'derves."
"What time is the birthday girl getting here?" Sophia asked.
"I told Roberta to be here at 2 o'clock." Dorothy told her.
"Do you think she suspects anything?" Rose asked.
"Please the woman is 88, she still tries to find Gun Smoke on Sunday nights." Sophia told them.
"Okay, Lacey why don't you get the cake and we can take all of this stuff into the living room." Blanche Suggested.
"Sure." Lacey replied. She walked over to the fridge and opened it up. "Where's the cake? Aunt Rose did you take it out?" Lacey asked as she scrutinised the contents of the fridge.
"No, I haven't even seen it yet." Rose told her.
"Ma what did you do with the cake?" Dorothy asked.
"I didn't do anything with it, I haven't seen it yet either." Sophia told her.
"What do you mean you haven't seen it, you were supposed to bake it!" Dorothy told her.
"I was?" Sophia looked up, surprised.
"Oh Ma, you forgot!" Dorothy complained.
"I didn't forget, I wanted to make sure it was fresh." Sophia said, getting to her feet and walking towards the stove. "I'll bake it now."
"Oh honey, Roberta's gonna be here in 45 minutes, I don't think you have time to make a cake." Blanche told her.
"I'll help." Lacey offered. "Not that I've ever made one before."
"It'll be a lesson for you, besides in 45 minutes I can bake 2 cakes and knit you a sweater." Sophia boasted. "Out of my way, the maestro approaches the podium!" Lacey got up and went to help Sophia get the ingredients ready.
"I hope they finish in time, you can't give a good birthday party without a cake." Rose said as she sat down at the table.

Lacey helped Sophia mix the ingredients together.
"How's the cake coming Sophia?" Blanche asked a short while later as she too sat down at the table.
"Beautiful, we've got everything we need, coconut, eggs, flour, rum."
"Oh you're making a rum cake?" Rose asked.
"No." Sophia replied as she poured herself a glass. "And a pinch of baking soda." Sophia advised as she piled a few spoon-fulls in. Dorothy looked over at her, concerned.
"Ma, that looked like an awfully big pinch." She observed.
"Who cares?" Sophia replied, taking another sip of Rum. Lacey smiled and pushed the hair out of her eyes, getting flour down her cheek. She loved to just listen to these guys.
"Sophia maybe you should sit down." Rose suggested.
"I am sitting down!" Sophia protested, even though she was standing next to the stove.
"You know what? I'm gonna make you a nice pot of coffee." Blanche said as she led Sophia over to the table and sat her down.
"Don't panic, I'm fine. I haven't had that much." Sophia assured them. "Besides, do you think I'd ruin Roberta's mile stone birthday?"
"Milestone? She's 88." Rose said, looking confused.
"Right. Every year after 80 without a headstone is a milestone." Sophia told her.

They sat round the table drinking coffee, well the aunts were drinking coffee, Lacey had a glass of water. She had still never gotten used to the taste of coffee.
"Sophia do you think this cake is ready yet?" Blanche asked, getting up and looking in the oven. "Roberta's gonna be here any minute."
"It's ready when it's ready."
"Oh well it won't make any difference, she won't be surprised anyway." The girls looked at her questioningly. "Oh surprise birthday parties never work!"
"Oh yeah, what about that surprise birthday party we threw for you when we first move in, that worked." Rose protested.
"Well I suppose!" Blanche laughed to herself. "Boy that turned out to be some evening didn't it?"
"It sure did." Dorothy agreed.
"What happened?" Lacey asked.
"Well, not long after we moved in we decided to throw Blanche a surprise party. Well, we had no idea that she hated them! So she came back from work, upset that her colleagues had thrown her one, and we had another one waiting out for her on the Lanai! Luckily Rose had picked up Blanche's little black book rather than her address book so all of the guests were Blanche's "Friends", it sure made for an interesting evening." Dorothy told her.
"And ever since then I have loved surprise parties." Blanche exclaimed.
"It kind of reminded me of a party back in St Olaf, when I was a little girl." Rose reminisced. Everyone looked around trying to find a means of escape.
"Big Sven and Little Sven were celebrating the first anniversary of their smoked herring hoagey house, when Big Sven..." Suddenly the buzzer went off.
"I'll get it!" All four of them chimed in, rushing to the oven.
"It's my cake, stand back, I'll get it!" Sophia yelled as she pushed Blanche out of the way. Lacey got up to see how the cake had turned out. The tray that Sophia picked out of the oven had the flattest cake Lacey had ever seen in it.
"Ma, that looks like a cookie." Dorothy observed.
"Sophia honey, I think you put too much rum in it." Blanche guessed.
"So stick an umbrella in it and serve it with straws!" Sophia suggested.
"Well let's take it into the living room, Roberta's going to be here any minute." Rose advised as they all got up and headed into the living room.
"Oh I just hope she's really surprised! That's the best part of a birthday, when you're really surprised!" Blanche said as she closed the door after Sophia. The four of them turned to her and yelled;
"Surprise!" Blanche looked back at them, shocked.
"What?"
"Happy Birthday Blanche." Dorothy smiled.
"My Birthday's not till next week." Blanche told them.
"We know! But you said after the last time that we'd never be able to surprise you again!"
"We figured this was the only way to do it!"
"You really did a good job! I don't know what to say!" Blanche beamed at them.
"Say: it's conga time!" Suddenly a que of men with a stereo playing conga music came pouring in from the lanai.
"I think Aunt Rose used the wrong book again." Lacey muttered to Dorothy. As she watched, all four of her Aunts joined in on the conga line. Just then Lacey felt her phone begin to vibrate in her pocket. She headed to the back of the house before taking it out of her pocket. An unknown number flashed up on the screen.
"Hello?" She answered it.
"Lacey?" She heard Sam's voice over the line.
"Sam, what's up?"
"I need your help Lacey. Things are getting pretty bad back here."
"What's going on?" Lacey asked, her tone turning serious.
"We have to help Dean."