When I was finally done stuffing my face with the scrumptious pancakes, my family sang a loud chorus of Happy Birthday, my brother finally getting it, and out came the cake. And when I say the cake, I mean THE cake.

   Two tiers high, just dripping with leafy green icing, bedecked with ornamental flowers of pink and yellow and tangerine, eleven brown and green candles shaped like trees standing high on the second level, looking as if they're on fire with the flickering candle flames jutting out of the tops. It honestly looked like a meadow.

   "Well sweetie, do you like it? We made it ourselves... and well..." My mother says uncertainly. My mouth just drops open, I have nothing good enough to say. 

   "Looksie, Zali! I made a little birdie on the twee! See it Zali, see it?" I peer at the tree on the cake that has just been deposited in front of me, my father sighing and rubbing his arms from carrying the cake from the pantry over to me. 

   "Golly, I've never known a cake this heavy before," I hear him mutter.

   Sure enough, what I had taken to be a red and mahogany blob on the tree turned out to be a messily crafted robin. 

   "Oh, Abey! I love it!" I say, throwing my arms around Abe and giving him a big hug. Then I turn to look at my mother and father, and say to them sincerely, "I love it. Honestly, it's... it's..." I struggle to find the right words to describe it. "Fantastic, amazing, incredible, extraordinary... Wizard!" 

   "Did somebody say Wizard?"

   I look around for the source of the deep, male voice, and I see a dark outline outside the window next to the front door. 

   "Could you be kind enough to open this door?" Asked the voice, "It is getting rather hot out here and I don't have much time."

   My family, including me, gape at the door. Who could be outside at this time in the morning, it's only eight o'clock and it's a weekend in August. Who do we know that would make the effort to drive all the way to our door right now? Do they want to wish me happy birthday or something? 

   "Well, hurry up then!" continued the voice, irritatedly. 

   I get up, glance at my parents, who nod, and walk over past the radio to open the door. The radio stutters, as it always does when I walk past, so I ignore it. I fling open the door, and a tall man in long, emerald robes stands in front of me. 

  "Well, good morning Miss Scarlett! How are you on this very special day? You are just the person I was hoping to meet."

   "Ahh!" I scream in surprise as the man grasps my hand in a firm grip. "How... how?"

   I try to wrench my hand from this odd man's grip, and a china cup explodes.