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"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