Good morning and welcome to July. Can you believe how fast June flew by? As it is July first it is also the first day of the Smashwords Summer Sale. Most of my books are half off all month and some are even free. There will also be a new book released this month as well as the full and edited Tansy Moves in for those of you who missed the first monthly chapter book. And of course there are many other authors participating, thousands actually, so it is a fantastic way to find a great new book or even a new author to read. But for now, we need to start our morning prompt. Is everyone ready? Then let’s get to it.
Ohh Frank is up to something…I kind of like this story start and really want to look into it. Perhaps that will be a weekend thing.
Friday, July 1st: “You are in for such a surprise.”
“You are in for such a surprise,” He smiled and looked like he could barely contain himself. Frank was almost bouncing on the toes of his feet with enthusiasm but couldn’t help smile at his exuberance. He opened the door.
“Surprise,” the room chorused so loudly that I was knocked back a step.
“Happy Birthday,” Frank added. He spread his arms wide to encompass the room. I smiled, hoping it looked genuine.
“This is unexpected,” I said, feeling as though I had to say something.
“That’s why it is called a surprise,” Frank said. I nodded and took a step forward. Frank pulled me into the room and closed the door behind us. Not a single face in the room, save Frank’s was familiar to me. I wondered if my friends simply couldn’t make it. None of them seemed to be present.
There was cake where I blew out the candles and then I sliced up the cake and doled out pieces to each of the people now filling my living room. As I handed out the plates I studied the faces trying to figure out who they were. Surely I must have met at least a few of them before. I smiled politely and made small talk as I handed them their plates. They smiled back and made generic comments back, mostly in the vein of happy birthday. None of them added my name and when the line was through and everyone had a slice of cake I took up my own slice. I was certain I had never met any of them before.
I wondered if all of my friends had gone out of town for some reason and could come up with no event large or small that might have gotten all of them out of town. I took a bite of my cake and tried not to make a face. The cake was an overly sweet confetti cake with little flecks of color dotted throughout. I hadn’t liked it as a child and liked it even less as an adult, but it was Frank’s favorite. He was even partial to the overly sweet store icing that came on it. To me it tasted like shortening someone added a dash of vanilla and a whole lot of sugar to.
‘Still he thought to get a cake,’ I thought to myself. I smiled generically at the crowd and when all of them were looking elsewhere I ditched my cake and dipped into the punch bowl. It was a bowl filled with a block of sherbet ice cream, lemon Lime soda and fruit punch. I hadn’t been aware that anyone still made that sort of punch any more but then remembering Frank saying he always loved it. As I took a cup I looked around for Frank. He was chatting animatedly with a group of people on the other side of the room. In fact he seemed to be the center of attention people going in and out of his central sphere.
“Nice place,” someone said to me, causing me to jump.
“Thank you,” I replied. I turned to find a woman studying the door surround. “My grandfather built it,” I said.
She looked surprised. “I thought this was Frank’s house?” she said.
Ten til Midnight 