The Countdown Begins

Fred got out of bed and went downstairs. He wanted to see Mom and Dad before they leave for work, they were already having breakfast when I came upstairs to wake him up.

A few minutes later, Fred came upstairs wearing a long face.

"Fred, why the long face?"

"I am not happy. Mom and Dad forgot about my birthday and Uncle Sam has refused to call back." Fred lamented.

"But they wished you a happy birthday, right?"

"Yes, but they weren't so eager..."

"You have never been so excited about your birthday like this before,  what's special this year?"

"Maybe, I am just excited about Uncle Sam's gift and worried I haven't heard from him."

I was struggling so hard not to say anything to Fred about our plans. Uncle Sam had called earlier the day before to ask after Fred and agreed to play along with us.

Later in the day, Fred forgot about everything and carried on with his day normally.

"Fred, why are you not eating your food?" Mom asked as we were having dinner.

"I am not hungry," Fred replied.

"Will you like to take ice cream?"

"Yes"

"Me too" I added.

"Clear away the dishes and bring the ice cream in the refrigerator." Mom winked at me.

Mom, Dad and Fred went to the sitting room, while I went out to get the supposed ice cream.

I got to the kitchen and brought out the cake from the cupboard where I had hidden it and lit the candles.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Fred. Happy birthday to you", I began to sing as I came inside and our parents joined me.

"Make a wish and blow out the candles." Mom said to him.

Fred closed his eyes and said some inaudible words before blowing the candle.

"Happy Birthday Fred" Dad gave him a neatly wrapped gift.

"It's from your dad and me." Mom chirped in.

"Hmm, you and who?" Dad retorted.

Mom laughed and hit him on the shoulder. Fred unwrapped the gift and it was a set of transformer toys.

"Wow!" Fred exclaimed as he saw the toys.

"Thanks a lot, Dad," He hugged him and also hugged Mom.

"Elsie, Mom and Dad have given me a gift. Where's yours?"

"The cake is your birthday gift. I baked it myself."

"You are lying. You are not the one who baked it, it's obviously Mom who baked it."

"Fred, your sister baked this cake for you." Mom convinced him.

Fred stared at me in disbelief before he finally managed to say thank you to me.

"Ok, this is the final gift," Dad said as he booted his laptop and connected on a Zoom call with Uncle Sam and handed over the laptop to Fred.

"Happy birthday Fred," Uncle Sam said to him.

"Finally, I get to speak with you. I was getting worried." Fred sniffed.

"Why were you worried? I told you I went on a trip."

"Alright, I am sorry for making you worry about me."

Fred nodded in response and cleaned his eyes.

"How did the day go?"

"It was boring. Mom and Dad acted as if they forgot my birthday. Things only became lively this evening."

"Hmm, did you like the little surprise party"?

"Yes, I did. Mom and Dad bought me a gift and Elsie baked a cake for me.

"Waw, can I see the cake?"

Fred turned the laptop to face the cake so that Uncle Sam could see the cake even though it had been sliced.

"It looks beautiful and delicious." Uncle Sam commented.

"Of course, it's both beautiful and delicious. I baked it myself." I chirped in.

Mom and Dad stayed a while and left the sitting room to give us space to talk properly to our uncle.

"So, what about my share of the cake?" Uncle Sam asked.

"We will send it to you through a courier service very soon or do you want us to send it through Zoom." I laughed.

"Alright missy, I will be waiting for my package." Uncle Sam chuckled.

"Uncle, do you have any gift for me?" Fred asked.

I nudged him. I couldn't believe that he was still asking for gifts after all that Uncle Sam bought for us when he visited last month and promised him that he could come over to his place in the next holiday.

"Aaah, Fred is truly still a child." I thought to myself.

"No, I didn't, but when you come over next year I  will give you a gift." Uncle Sam replied.

"Uncle, I'll be resuming school on the 14th of September, I just wanted to let you know so that you won't miss me so much." I smiled.

"Aaah, I forgot about it. Congratulations once more!"

"And one more thing, I'm going to miss you." He added and I smiled.

"Uncle, why will you miss her?" Fred questioned him.

I gave him a side eye as he asked that stupid question.

"Hmmm!" Uncle Sam replied with a puzzled look on his face.

"Won't you miss your sister?"

"No, I won't miss her." Fred retorted.

Uncle Sam laughed, "Alright, kids, I still have work to do. Good night!"

"Good night Uncle Sam! " Fred and I replied before ending the call.

We went upstairs to return Dad's laptop to him in the study. Dad was in the study and still awake but Mom had slept off.

"Make sure you cover yourself properly so you don't catch a cold." Dad reminded us.

"Yes, Dad. Good night"  Fred and I replied.

                             *********************

After Fred's birthday, I had twenty- three more days left until resumption. I was looking forward to that day and I had begun counting down the days.

Mom also started shopping for the items I'll be going back to school with whenever she was free or had less work to do at the hospital. All of my items were branded with my initials "E.W" as a means of identification as the school had stipulated.