Natalie and the Downside-Up Birthday (7 page)

Saturday, I feel bad twitchy in my stomach. On account of I am having a birthday party, but nobody is coming.

Mommy is in the kitchen covering up my birthday cake so the germs don’t get in. Daddy is in the family room dropping clothespins into jars. It’s a game. Granny and I are waiting in the living room.

“Where
is
everybody?” Granny asks. She peeks out the front window for the gazillionth time.

“Laurie will be here. Laurie’s mom made her go help pick up Laurie’s sister Brianna. Brianna got to sleep over at a friend’s. Only she was still sleeping over when they got there. And she is hard to hurry up.” My bestest friend was crying on the phone when she told me this.

“But where’s everybody else?” Granny demands. “You’d think they’d all come early just for the cake. Your mom told me how they ate every cupcake at your kindergarten party.”

I look down at my foot. Not at Granny.

“What?” Granny quits staring out the window. She stares at me. “Nat? Come clean, girl.”

I don’t want to hurt Granny’s feelings. “Maybe they didn’t eat
all
the cupcakes,” I admit.

Granny bends down lower so I have to see her. “Spill it, kid.”

And I do. I’ve been holding the whole kindergarten party inside of me. Now it comes gushing out like a volcano cake. I tell Granny about Sasha and her mother. And the big cookies. And the games. And the napkins.

And the fancy cupcakes with prizes on top.

And how Sasha invited everybody to a better-than-mine party that lasts the whole day.

When I’m done, Granny says, “That just dills my pickle. That’s what.”

“I threw our cupcakes in the wastebasket.” I didn’t want to say this part. But saying it to Granny makes my stomach stop feeling so twitchy.

Granny hugs me. Hard. In a very good way.

The front door flies open. “I’m here!” Laurie shouts. “Sorry I’m late. Bri’s fault. Boy, is she in trouble.”

Granny hugs my bestest friend. “You’re just in time, Laurie.”

“Am I also in time?”

We all turn to the open door to see who said this. It’s Farah. Standing behind her is a woman who looks like Farah, with big brown eyes and black

hair. “Is this the home of Farah’s friend Natalie?” the woman asks.

“It certainly is,” Granny says. She introduces herself and us to Farah’s mom.

I take Farah’s coat for her. “Thanks for coming, Farah.”

“Did you get invited to Sasha’s party?” Laurie asks.

“No,” Farah admits. “But I would still come here if I had this other party invitation.”

Laurie and I give each other smiley faces. Then we each take one of Farah’s hands and go to the kitchen to meet Mommy.

As soon as Farah’s mom leaves, Granny turns on music. “Let’s party!” she shouts.

Daddy shows us how to drop clothespins into a jar.

We are in the middle of a game of Pass the Orange when Jason comes running into the family room.

“I love that orange game!” he shouts. “My turn!” It turns out he went to Sasha’s party
and
my party. Only I know he missed a lot of great playing at Sasha’s party. I am done being aggravated at my bestest friend who is a boy, Jason.

Just the kids sit at a little round table so I can open my presents. I get nail polish from Laurie. Plus there are stickers to put on top of the polish. I love nail polish. Farah and her mother made me a box out of tiny seashells. It is filled with beautifulness. Jason got me a baseball. And he signed it.

“Thanks for the presents, everybody,” I say. “They’re the best presents in the world.” This feels like a true thing.

Mom cuts us giant pieces of cake.

“We gotta pray first,” I say before Jason eats his whole cake. I take Farah’s hand, and Laurie takes her other hand. I take Jason’s hand. And we’re all hand-holders around the table.

Then I talk to God, only out loud. “God, thanks for this super birthday party. And my really-and-for-true friends. And this cake filled with gorgeousness.

Plus I hope you got good birthday parties when you were a little boy. Like at Christmas.”

“Can we eat yet?” Jason whispers.

“Amen,” I say. I take a big bite of my cake. And guess what. It is the best cake in the world. That’s what.

“How old is God?” Farah asks. She takes tiny cake bites.

“My sister Sarah says God’s as far up as numbers go,” Laurie answers.

“I do not understand,” Farah says.

“Yeah. Me neither,” Laurie admits.

“I think God is really, really, really, really old,” I say. “Like twenty-four maybe? But he never looks a
day older every time you see him.”

I say a secret, to-myself, open-eyes prayer and thank God for my friends. And I thank him for being at my party, like he is at kindergarten, and church, and the HyKlas.

Anna shows up in time to play Red Rover. Plus two other kids come too.

We get seconds on everything ’cause there’s lots of food and still not lots of people at my party. That makes me a tiny bit of sad. But not too much. On account of I really like the people who
are
here.

I don’t have horse rides. Or jumping boxes. Or bowling. But at my house, we have each other.

And one more thing.

A really happy birthday! That’s what.

Zonderkidz

Natalie and the Downside-Up Birthday

Copyright © 2009 by Dandi Daley Mackall

Illustrations © 2009 by Lys Blakeslee

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition MARCH 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-87667-0

Requests for information should be addressed to: Zonderkidz,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mackall, Dandi Daley.

Natalie and the downside-up birthday / by Dandi Daley Mackall.

p. cm.—(That’s Nat!)

Summary: Five-year-old Natalie is so excited about her birthday parties--a kindergarten version and a home party too—until she discovers she has a “birthday buddy,” the not-so-nice Sasha.

ISBN 9780310876670

[1. Birthdays—Fiction. 2. Parties—Fiction. 3. Sharing—Fiction. 4. Christian

life—Fiction. 5. Kindergarten—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.M1905Nad 2009

[Fic]—dc22

2008049737

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the
Holy Bible, New International Version
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NIV
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Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan

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