Read Just Plain Al: The Al Series, Book Five for Free Online Page B

tell her about Al renouncing her worldly goods … I figured it would pass.
    â€œWhy, right here, of course. We could put the leaf in the table and polish the silver and have a cake with candles. Fourteen with one to grow on,” my mother said, smiling at me.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “Maybe Al wouldn’t like a party right down the hall from where she lives.”
    â€œWe could make it a surprise party,” my mother said. Like most people, she hears what she wants to hear and throws the rest away.
    â€œI don’t think she’d be up for a surprise party. I think she’d flip if we all jumped out at her.”
    â€œWe wouldn’t jump out at her. We’d hide behind the door or someplace, and come out very casually. We could have balloons and party hats and …”
    â€œYeah, and little baskets filled with M and Ms,” I added. “And we could play pin the tail on the donkey.”
    My mother gave me a long, hard stare.
    â€œI hope you’re not going into a difficult phase,” she told me. “I understand some girls get rather impossible when they hit their teens. Somehow, I never thought it would happen to my little girl.”
    If there’s one thing that sends me into a fit, it’s being called my little girl, which my mother is fully aware of.
    â€œMaybe I better sound Al out about this party,” I suggested.
    â€œThat won’t be necessary.” My mother bit off a thread. “I’ll simply call up and ask Al and her mother to come to dinner Saturday night.”
    â€œIf you call Al on the telephone,” I said, “she’ll think somebody died. You’ve never called her in your entire life. She’ll pass out.”
    Just then the hand of fate pressed our doorbell.
    Two, then one, then two, the ring came.
    â€œTa dah!” Al breezed in under full sail, the Niña , the Pinta , and the Santa María all in one.
    â€œGuess what? I just got a birthday card from my father. It was signed by Louise and all the boys. Can you beat it? It’s a couple of days early, but my father said he wanted to be sure it arrived in time. There was a note from Louise. She said they hadn’t been in touch because of having so many visitors. Her mother”—Al ticked off the visitors on her fingers—“and her brother and his wife, and some people she’d known when she lived in St. Louis. She said she hadn’t had a minute to write. Also, Sam just got home from the hospital.” Sam is Al’s favorite stepbrother. Sam is beguiling, Al says. She’s sappy about Sam.
    â€œHe had his appendix out,” Al said. “Can you imagine a little guy like Sam being in the hospital? I bet he hated it. I thought people didn’t even have their appendix out, anymore. I thought they left it in because it might come in handy someday.”
    â€œThat’s your tonsils, dumbo,” I said. “If your appendix wants out, let it out. Polly had appendicitis and she said it hurt.”
    â€œThe birthday card says, ‘Present follows,’ in my father’s writing. What do you suppose they sent me? Maybe a pair of sweat pants to go with my sweat shirt. Then I’d have a total outfit.” Al liked the idea, I could see.
    â€œYeah, pants with AL(exandra) the Great written all across your rear end,” I said. “So they’d know who you are, coming and going.”
    Al’s face was wreathed in smiles as she waited for me to finish talking so she could go on with what was on her mind. I know Al. Now that she’d heard from her father and Louise and the boys, she was on the glory road.
    â€œWho needs a birthday party, anyway? Who cares? The Rainbow Room’s not so much, anyway. Who cares?” She was a new woman.
    â€œI do,” my mother said. “A birthday party is in the cards for you, Al. I feel it in my bones.”
    â€œYou do?” Al looked from me to