Page 6

"Mother? Daddy? Drake?"

I even went into the kitchen. The coffeepot was perking, eggs were scrambled and readied for the skillet, slices of bread were in the toasters ready to be pushed down to be toasted, the juice was poured into glasses and placed on the silver trays, but there was no one in the kitchen. Where was Roland Star, our cook, or Mrs. Avery, our maid? And I hadn't seen Gerald Wilson, our butler, in the hallways or standing quietly in a corner.

"What is going on here?" I smiled with confusion and excitement. Finally, I went to the front door and opened it to look out.

There they were: my mother, my father, Drake, the servants, and standing off to the side, Luke, all of them with this Cheshire cat smile on their faces.

"What's going on here?" I asked, and started out. "Why are you . ."

And there it was. Somehow, the night before, my father had snuck a brand-new Mercedes

convertible onto the driveway. It was light blue with sparkling aluminum wheels. They had it wrapped in two large pink ribbons. Before I could say anything, they all broke out into a rendition of "Happy Birthday." A lump came to choke my throat as I walked around and around the car and saw the license plate with my name.

"Happy birthday, Annie honey," my mother said. "May you have many, many more as happy as this one."

"I don't thank that's possible," I cried. "How could I ever be happier than this? Thank you, everyone."

I kissed Daddy and hugged Drake.

"I don't know about anyone else," my father announced, "but I'm starving."

Everyone laughed and the servants filed past, kissing me and wishing me a happy birthday as they all went back to their duties. Only Luke lingered behind. I knew no matter how he was treated, he always felt like an outsider.

"Come along, Luke," my mother called, seeing how he remained just where he had been standing. "Logan and I have something special for you, too."

"Thank you, Heaven."

My mother looked at Luke and then at me and then joined the others. Luke didn't move.

"Come on, silly," I said. "It's our special day."

He nodded.

"What a beautiful car."

"We'll take a ride in it right after breakfast, okay?"

"Sure," he said, but he looked confused. "Heaven invited my mother, but she has a hangover. I don't know if she's going to make it," he explained.

"Oh Luke, I'm sorry." I took his hand. "Let's not let anything make us sad today, and if anything does, we'll go right to the gazebo and travel away from it." That made him smile. When we were very little, we would spend a lot of time there. It became a special place for us, a center for our fantasies. Without ever coming out and saying so, we understood that whenever we wanted to do or say something special, we would go to the gazebo.

Stepping up the three steps was like rising up out of the real world. It was a large gazebo, with a circular bench attached to the railings. My parents had had it repainted a bright white and green. There were small lanterns spaced along the ceiling beams so at night it could be lit up, something Luke and I thought made it even more magical.

We were practically the only ones to ever use it. It was more like a decorative piece. I couldn't remember a time my father had ever been in it. Drake never cared for sitting in it. He would much rather sit in the study, even on sunny warm days. Unless, of course, I wanted to go out there and he had nothing else to do. Then he would go along, but complain endlessly about the bugs or the hard wooden benches.

"We've got to go there anyway," Luke said. "I've got something for you," he added.

"And I've got something for you. See? This will be a wonderful day. Happy birthday."

"Happy birthday, Annie."

"Good. Now let's eat. I'm starving. All this excitement made me hungry."

He laughed and we rushed into Hasbrouck House.

Luke was wrong about his mother. Aunt Fanny made one of her usual dramatic entrances. We had all just sat down to have breakfast when she came bursting through the front door.

"Jist like ya all not ta wait for me," she declared, her hands on her hips. She was wearing a wide-brim black satin hat with a bright green ribbon and had her hair pinned up. Luke must have been right about her hangover because she wore her sunglasses in the house. Aunt Fanny often wore something outlandish, especially whenever she visited us. I thought she was just trying to annoy Mommy, but my mother never seemed to pay much attention to Fanny's clothing. Today she wore a dark green, short leather skirt and leather vest over a frilly pink blouse. All her colors made her look like a Christmas tree.