The Birthday Party

 Yesterday morning, I picked up Mattie so she could get some shopping done. She mentioned that she wanted to pick up some pepperoni pizzas for Levi. The following day was his birthday. I got to thinking on it as we drove. 

"Listen," I said, "If you want to order the pizzas, we'll pick them up and deliver them. Our contribution will be rootbeer floats and a birthday cake." 

She thought that was a great idea and we conspired together. In the end, we agreed that Levi shouldn't know anything was going on until we actually showed up at their door. "Oh, this will be so much fun," she said. 

We plotted our plots while shopping. When the Amish get a ride, they make the most of it. She introduced me to an Amish bulk store. I introduced her to a new discount grocery. We also hit the GoodWill (she likes to pick up jigsaw puzzles to do at night with the children.) I found three pair of pants for myself. 

We went to Walmart. The Dollar Tree. The trunk and back seat began to fill up with bags. 

So I dropped Mattie off about lunch time. The three children at home efficiently began to unpack the car.  Levi came said, "How's the millionaire doing?" 

I said, "Actually, he's been under the weather..."

He said, "Oh, I meant you." 

I laughed. "I'd like to know who is telling you stories..." Levi's a big kidder, and he gets a kick out of people handing it right back to him. "I am here to tell you the bad news that YOU used to be a millionaire. Mattie and I went shopping, though. 

He laughed. He said, "I'm working on my second million, you know." 

"Is that a fact?" I said, waiting for the punchline. 

Sure enough, there was one. "Yeah. I gave up on der first million,.."

At 5:00, we picked up the pizzas, grabbed the gallon of vanilla ice cream from the freezer and the cake off the table. 4 big bottles of rootbeer were already chilling in the trunk. We headed back up on the hill. 

Levi was very surprised to see our car pulling up to his house yet again as he walked home from the saw mill next door in the dark. 

What a fun time we had by kerosene lantern light, with the kids all around the table. They'd never had rootbeer floats before and were very interested to see what that was all about. After supper, the girls scooted the dishes off to be washed, and there was much giggling and carrying on. The boys disappeared out the door to take care of the evening barn chores. Levi pulled his chair over to the big kitchen woodstove and we sat around shooting the breeze. 

Over the course of the evening, we discovered, appropos to absolutely nothing, that one of Levi's favorite things was Beetle Bailey. It just made me laugh. 

We left at 8, because children were beginning to nod off, one by one. The two of the youngest girls dozed off on a blanket in front of the warm stove. The youngest boy was asleep on Mattie's lap. 

When, I got home, we looked on line and found a lot of five Beetle Bailey collections for $10. Tim said, "Order those..." and so I did. I put a note to the seller: 'Don't put any billing information in with these please. Just a note "From Santy Claus" and gave him Levi's address.