"They were if they didn't treat you extra special
on your birthday," Daddy asserted.
She couldn't slow him down when it came to
lavishing love upon Noble and me, no matter what
warnings she had received from her spiritual world or
fears of evil eyes she pronounced. His voice was the
loudest singing "Happy Birthday'. to us, and he looked
as excited and anxious to see our presents as we did.
Whether they were his or ours, birthdays turned him
into a little boy again,
Maybe Mommy was remembering all that, or
maybe Daddy had come to her and told her to do it,
but this time she decided to make us a real p
arry and
not just a cake. We had no friends to invite, but
Mommy had us decorate the dining room with crepe
paper and balloons Mr. Kotes brought. One of his
presents. which Mommy permitted to our surprise,
was a clown-magician who arrived just at the start of
our dinner party, Mr. Kotes had located and paid for
him, as well.
Noble was fascinated with the tricks, the way
he found money in his ear, pulled strings of thin
balloons out of his throat, made cards disappear,
poured water down his sleeve and didn't get wet, and then popped a baby rabbit out of a bouquet of fake flowers, Mr. Kotes said the rabbit was ours to keep. too. One of our presents was a cage for it, but one day
Noble let it out and we never saw it again.
After the clown-magician left, we had our
dinner, and then Mommy lit the candles. Ever since
we were old enough to blow out candles, we did it
together, Noble on one side and me on the other. As