Surprise Party

Tonight's Episode

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-dialogue

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-family

“There are more people in the yard than I invited.” Marisol told her event organizer.

“I think it looks more crowded with the help.” Nadia, the organizer replied.

“No… No, I can see there are a good number of people here I didn’t invite, I don’t even know some of them, and a couple of them I specifically did not want here. What I want to know is how they learned of it and who told them to come.” Marisol said.

“I’ll see if I can figure out what happened.” Nadia said.

“This is supposed to be a surprise party. Maybe I should not have hired a local company to do this, word gets around.” Said Marisol.

It was a lot happening for Marisol’s daughter. She had a long year at her first year of University, and she hadn’t been home for a bit of a while. The plan is that when she comes in today from the airport, she’ll be surprised. It’s not supposed to be a large, loud, long gathering. Only some cousins and a few close friends, but the yard has a larger look and feel than that.

The event organizer informs Marisol she has a phone call. “It’s Melinda ma’am, she’s arrived at the airport.” Marisol goes into the office to take the landline call. It’s a little weird that Melinda didn’t simply text or call her cell.

“What is it dear? How was your flight? Is everything OK, I didn’t expect you to call on the landline.” She listens intently as Melinda replies.

“I don’t want everyone to know I’m calling.” Melinda says

“Everyone? What do you mean everyone, Melinda?” Marisol says.

“At the party mother, everyone at the party.” She responds

“What party?” Marisol says.

“The one at the house. I invited a lot of my friends. The one you’re having there this afternoon for my coming home.” Said Melinda

“How did you know about it? This is supposed to be a quaint little surprise with a small meal and a few friends.” Her mother responds.

“Oh… I’m sorry mom, I forgot it was going to be a surprise party, that’s my bad.” Melinda says.

“How did you find out about this?” Marisol asks.

“I can’t remember.” Melinda says. “I heard about it in a group chat or something. Someone slipped I guess. But, the thing is Mama, I’m going to be later than I thought, and I want to apologize, and I guess now for the extra guests we have to take care of too.”

“I can order some extra things for delivery, it’s no problem. So why are you going to be late and how long till you get here?” She asks her daughter.

“Can you do me a favor mom, and go outside and get a head count for me, I’m going to do something special for the guests and I need a count.” Melinda says.

“OK. You really are something else, you know that?” Marisol tells her daughter.

Marisol goes outside to get an idea of the crowd size, and as she enters the backyard, there’s a large booming sound in the sky, she looks up, and a small plane has set off a marker flare. From out of the plume of purple smoke falls a skydiver. Everyone is watching, shading their eyes, holding up their phones.

A jumper in a yellow jumpsuit pulls a pink parachute and circles above the yard. People can’t believe it. They are commenting that it’s an awful lot for a freshman coming home gathering where the guest of honor is not even present.

The jumper slowly and masterfully touches down while detaching the chute in one motion.

“Surprise!” Melinda shouts as she takes off her helmet.

620 Words

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-family

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-dialogue

31 stories written and podcasted in 31 days.