Natalie and the Downside-Up Birthday Read Online Free PDF Page A

wait for Granny.
    Daddy, Mommy, and I eat fried chicken while we’re waiting. We’re all done when somebody knocks at the door.
    “Granny’s here!” I run to the door and open it. And I’m right.
    Granny is standing there with her arms full up with bags. “Cupcakes for kindergarten coming right up!” She marches in, shouting, “Cupcakes for kindergarten! Cupcakes for kindergarten!”
    I love my granny.
    Mom takes Granny’s coat. Daddy gets Granny’s bags. Then we go to the kitchen. On account of Granny says we need to get down to business. That’s what.
    “Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” Mom asks.
    “You know what they say about too many cooks,Kelly,” Granny answers.
    “Ah. Got it.” Mom leaves, but she’s smiley-faced.
    But I don’t get it. “What do they say about too many cooks?”
    “Too many cooks spoil the cupcakes,” Granny whispers.
    When Granny and I are alone in the kitchen, she starts humming. I know that humming song. We sing that song in our church. So I hum too.
    “We are humming cupcake girls,” I tell Granny between hums.
    “Humming cupcake girls, who can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” Granny laughs. Then we hum another God song. It goes by the name of “Jesus Loves Me.”

    I love that song. And even without the words, our humming sounds like “Jesus Loves Me.”
    Granny dumps cake powder from the box into a giant big bowl. She smashes two eggs and plops them into the powdery. Then she pours some oil into a cup and lets me dump that one in.
    We take turns stirring. And stirring harder. We don’t even use a stirring machine like Mom uses. On account of we are old-fashioned humming cupcake girls.
    Granny looks both ways like she’s crossing a street. Only I think she’s making sure we’re all by ourselves. “Ready for my secret ingredient?” she whispers.
    I nod. My heart gets a little thumpy. I love secret ’gredients.
    “Chocolate chips,” she whispers.
    “Wow!” I whisper back.
    Granny points to one of the bags she made Daddy carry to the kitchen. “Bring me the chips, Nat. Your daddy used to love my cupcakes with chocolate chips when he was a boy.”
    I look in one bag, but I don’t see the chips. I’m thinking about how many birthdays my dad had when he was a boy. Plus also, how many my granny had. “How old are you, Granny?” I ask.
    “A lady never tells her age,” Granny answers.“But that old whale, Moby Dick, was a tadpole when I was born.”
    Sometimes my granny doesn’t make sense.
    I peek into the next bag. Only there aren’t any chocolate chips in there. Plus there are two presents in that bag.
    “Granny! Are these for me?”
    Granny comes over to the presents. “Hmm…well, let’s see. Who’s going to have a birthday tomorrow?”
    “Me!”
    “Guess these are yours, then.”
    “Can I open them now?” I make my eyes big at Granny. Sometimes that works with her. My mom never ever lets me open a present early. But Granny is a maybe. “Please? Please, Granny?”
    I can tell by my granny’s eyes that she wants me to open these presents. “Your birthday isn’t until tomorrow,” she says.
    “But you won’t be here in the morning when I open my presents,” I remind her. “And you are here now.”
    “Good point,” Granny admits. She reaches into the bag and pulls out a box.
    It might could hold a mouse. Or a hat. Or shoes. Or a hamburger. But not a TV. Or a horse. Or a bike.
    “Let’s open one.” Granny whispers this like we are secret present-opening girls.
    I pull off the purple bow. I rip off the cat paper. I tear open the box. “Wow!” Inside is a silvery thing, like metal circles sitting on top of each other. It could be a big, fat bracelet.
    “It’s so filled with gorgeousness!” I hug my granny. “Thank you, Granny.”
    I stare at this silver thing. Then I pull it out of the box. Only it gets bigger when I pull it, like a big, silvery circles snake.
    “It’s a Slinky, Nat,” Granny explains.
    I like that