In the little white house at the end of the lane

In the little white house at the end of the lane, by where the farmers put the corn into the big long train, Davonte was waking up from a nice sleep at Grandma’s house. Without evening thinking about it, Davonte used the shower like a big boy, and then he got dressed all by himself. He put on his Superman boxers, then one red sock and one blue sock. Then Davonte put on his Spiderman T-shirt and his Hawaii jam-shorts. Finally, he put on one white tennis shoe and one black cowboy boot; “I got dressed all by myself” he said as he was coming down the stairs.

Uncle Ricky said, “Hey Dante, what’s Good?” when Davonte came down to the kitchen. Dante went to look at the calendar; he noticed that the picture was still Elmo on a Picnic, so the month was still June. Then little Dante pointed to each of the days that had already been crossed out; when he saw the first day that didn’t have an X in it, Dante said “One. Eight. That’s eighteen. Today is June 18^th.” Ricky smiled when he asked Dante, “what happens on June eighteenth, little Buddy?”

Dante giggled, “Four. Four. Today is my birthday. Today I am Four.” Grandma asked, “Dante, how many slices of toast do you want?” “How many eggs do you want?” Little Dante said, “Four. Four. Today I am four, so I want four. Not less, not more, I want FOUR!” “Four, Four slices of toast, ha ha ha.” Dante said, sounding just like The Count.

Grandma knew that Dante couldn’t eat four slices of toast and four eggs. Grandma gave Dante his breakfast plate; it had one toast with peanut butter and FOUR banana slices on it.

Grandma asked Dante, “What’s up with the one shoe and one boot?” “I got my style going ON!” Dante said with a smile.

Everybody had a good breakfast, and Ricky, who is 14, started to clean up the table. Dante said, “I can help you Ricky, I am a big kid now.” Dante carried plates, one at a time, to the kitchen sink. “Four. Four plates washed and put away, ha, ha, ha” Dante said. When all the dishes were washed and put away, Dante and Ricky were allowed to play out side.

Pretty soon, the boys saw their good friend, the janitor, coming down the street. “What’s Good, Janitor Man?” Ricky said when their friend stopped to talk to them. Janitor Dean pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Dante. It was the invitations to Dante’s birthday party. “Hey thanks for printing up the invitations, Dean”, Ricky said as he was looking at the cards. Dante said, “Me and you get to hand out the cards, and whoever gets one, gets to come to my birthday tonight”.

Of course, the boys gave an invitation to Dean. Then they went down the street to see who else wanted to come to the birthday. Soon the boys were at the corner, so Dante sat on the steps while Ricky went into the tap to get a soda for them to share. As they were walking along drinking the soda, Dante saw mama’s friend K.D. Ricky called out to him, “K.D., what’s up?” K.D. stopped, so the boys could catch up to him and talk. Dante handed K.D. one of the cards, “You want to come to my birthday tonight, K.D.?” K.D. asked, “Is your mama going to be at the party?” Dante said, “Yeah and grandma and …”

“Then I’m there”, K.D. interrupted. Ricky smiled when K.D. said that.

Soon the boys were downtown, and they saw a lot of people that they knew. Dante asked Karlmone if he wanted to come to the birthday. Karlmone said, “I can’t come to your birthday, but Ricky can stop by later and I will send a big slab of ribs and sauce home with him. I will come see you tomorrow, after I close up the rib shack.” “Four. Four big ribs and sauce, ha, ha, ha” Dante said. Then the boys ran into mama’s friend Ann. “Please come to my birthday”, Dante asked. “Yeah, please, please come to the birthday”, Ricky giggled. Ann said, “Of course I will be there, I am helping your mom put up the balloons”. “I see that you have one white shoe and one black cowboy boot on, Dante”. “I got my style going ON”, Dante said.

It was very hot out, so Ricky took off his shirt and tied it around his waist. “See you at the party Ann” and the boys both waved goodbye as they were walking further down the street. “Single file, Injun style”, Ricky teased. “Please be quiet”, Dante said with a smile. Soon they were at Union Dairy, so the boys stopped in to get ice cream cones. Dante had a dip of Superman, and Ricky got a grape sherbet so his tongue would turn purple.

When they were walking along eating their cones, the boys saw Jason and Trevor. “Man, your tongue sure is purple, Ricky”, Jason said with a grin. “Yeah, grape sherbet will do that”, Trevor said. The boys talked and joked for a while, and then Dante gave each of them an invitation to his birthday party.

“Man, I am burning UP with this HEAT”, Ricky said. Trevor said, “Your back looks a little sun-burned Ricky”. Luckily, Jason had his pegs on his bike, and Trevor had a big basket on the handle bars of his bike. So, Ricky rode on Jason’s pegs, and Dante rode in Trevor’s basket with a helmet strapped on. “Four. Four boys riding bike ghetto style, ha, ha, ha” Dante said, sounding just like The Count. It looked a little weird, but all four boys managed to ride back to their neighborhood without any problems.

When they got home, Ricky went in to put on some sun block and a clean shirt. He came back out wearing his blue jersey and his new black fitted. Ricky also had a hand full of quarters, he said, “Let’s get some icy cups!” “Four. Four cool dudes riding off to buy icy cups, ha, ha, ha” Dante said. Soon they were all back on their bikes, headed off to the arcade to get icy cups at Frieda’s house. Trevor and Jason got cherry, Dante got lemon, and Frieda gave Ricky an extra large grape icy cup. Ricky made SURE that Frieda got an invitation to the birthday party tonight.

After the icy cups were done, the boys all headed down to Trevor’s house. “I hope nobody’s got crusty drawers, ‘cause we all getting into the pool today!” Trevor shouted. Soon everybody was splashing and shouting and having a good time in the pool. “Four. Four boys splashing in the pool, ha, ha, ha” Dante said, sounding just like The Count.

After a while, Frieda came by, she had changed into her new pink one piece bathing suit. “Key Ute”, Ricky whispered to Frieda as she got in the pool. Dante was having a good time, floating on the inflatable float chair in the pool. Ricky was showing off for Frieda; diving under and jumping up, doing back flips and such, and making lots of waves and splashes.

After one great big splash, Ricky was standing there laughing, “Wasn’t that a great dive?” he asked. “Four. Four people laughing at Ricky, ha, ha, ha” Dante said. “Boy, you are working on my last nerve” Ricky said.

Pretty soon, every body was tired from splashing around, so each kid decided to go home and rest before getting ready for the big party tonight. When Ricky and Dante got back home, grandma asked them to change into dry shorts, then go rest up in Ricky’s room, so she could get the surprises ready for tonight.

When Dante woke up again, it was dark out. Ricky was already dressed up, and he helped Dante get his new outfit on for the party. When they came downstairs, the living room was all decorated with tons of balloons and streamers. There were red, green, blue, and purple balloons. “Four. There are four colors of balloons at my party, ha, ha, ha” Dante said, sounding just like The Count. Besides the balloons and streamers, there was also a pile of presents, a big cake, and ice cream. There were ribs, and burgers and hot dogs. Frieda brought a tray of icy cups. Grandma and Grandpa were there, so was Mama and K.D. Ann was watching TV on the couch. Jason and Trevor stopped by, with a present with Spiderman paper on it.

And Dean was there in the corner chair, sitting at the computer, typing up the last page of this story book.

Everybody played musical chairs, and then we cut the cake and ate. Then Dante got to open his presents. There were four Spiderman comic books, and four new pairs of shorts. Four DVD movies and four new action figures. Ricky read the comic books to Dante, while the kids played action figures with him. Ann picked out a DVD to watch on the big TV, and Dean found out that the computer could play DVDs too. Frieda sat next to Ricky, helping him make funny voices for the comic book characters as they read aloud. K.D. helped Mama clean up the kitchen after the snacks were done. Grandma kept asking Dante to go try on his new outfits, while Grandpa just said “Now, just let the kid play and quit bugging him”.

Everybody had a good time, and Dante was laughing and playing action figures. Even Russell and Karlmone stopped by to say Happy Birthday to Dante on his big day. The DVD movie was a funny one. Ann asked Dante what his favorite movie was, Dante said “Chucky” as he let himself fall backwards onto the edge of the couch. Grandma said, “No, we are not watching ‘Bride of Chucky’ again, I don’t know who let you get a hold of that DVD in the first place.” Ricky just sat there quietly, with his hand over his face, hiding his smile.

When all the snacks and dishes were cleaned up and all the new toys were put away, people started saying goodnight and getting ready to go home. Pretty soon, it was quiet again at the little white house at the end of the lane, by where the farmers put the corn into the big long train. Dante had had a big adventure today, now that he was one of the big kids. Dante was glad that everybody had a good time on his special day. But the best part was that he was home with his mom and grandma and grandpa. And especially that he knew that his Ricky loved him very much. And when everything was quite and all the people had said good night, Dante fell asleep on the couch with a big smile on his face. Ricky carried his little buddy upstairs and put him to bed.

Well, that’s all for now, until next time.