Billy Carter

Chapter 15: Birthday

About a week later, I woke up when Mum leapt on my bed and started kissing my face all over.
"What the- Mum!"
"Happy birthday baby boy!" Mum laughed, sitting back on my bed. I sat up and Dad sat down next to her, with a big bowl of-
"Coco Pops!" I exclaimed happily, and Dad gave me the bowl. "Thanks!" I said with a mouthful of sugary chocolate cereal, accidentally dribbling a bit of cold milk down my chin and pyjama shirt.
"It's ok," Mum said, pulling a tissue out of her bra and dabbing at the milk on my shirt. "Now I know it's your birthday, but you have to get up - it's already one o'clock."
"One o'clock!" I exclaimed. "My alarm was supposed to go off at eight, I was supposed to start work at ten this morning!"
"Relax, honey - I talked to Don weeks ago to get today off for you and unset your alarm last night. You have all day to relax and do whatever you want. Ollie, Tony, Cynthia, Trent and whoever else is coming with them should be here around five o'clock," Mum told me.
"In the meantime," Dad said, "finish your breakfast and join us in the kitchen. We just picked up your present, and it's waiting downstairs for you." Dad clapped me on the back and he and Mum left me to get dressed.

When I met my parents downstairs Mum was grinning ear to ear and dad had his hand in a decent sized cardboard box.
"Are you ready for your present?!" Mum asked excitedly. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation.
"I don't know who's going to be happier with this gift - you or your mother," dad sighed - but he was smiling too. The two of them stepped away and watched me as I approached the box on the kitchen table. I opened the top and looked in...
... And pulled out the chubbiest, fluffiest, tiniest little yellow Labrador Retriever puppy I'd ever seen.
"Holy shit is that a dog?" I asked in total shock, as I stared at the dog.
"No, it's a baby giraffe," Dad rolled his eyes and smiled as I picked up the wriggling pooch and pet it.
"Doesn't look like a giraffe," I told Dad, and turned back to the puppy, holding her up to my face. "Are you a baby giraffe in disguise?" I asked the puppy, and she started licking my face. "I think that's a no," I laughed with Mum and Dad.
"What are you going to call her, hon?" Mum asked.
"Hmm..." I cocked my head to look at the puppy and she copied me. "I don't know yet."
"Well she can't be nameless forever," Dad told me.
"Well, in the meantime we can call her... 'Whatsername'." I gave the puppy a cuddle and pat her soft, glossy coat.
"Just pick a name, it's not hard. Call her... Mary," Dad shrugged.
"No, she's not a Mary. It'll come to me, you just gotta let these things happen naturally."
"We got some toys and a kennel for her too - and a food bowl, of course," Mum told me.
"Kennel? Why'd you get a kennel, she's sleeping on my bed."
"No, she can sleep outside," Dad said firmly.
"What, this little baby puppy? Out in the unforgiving English Winter?"
"It's Autumn,"
"It's still cold - you wouldn't make me sleep outside, would you? Daddy?" I asked.
"If you pissed me off enough I would."
"Of course, but how could this innocent, beautiful little pupper face ever piss anybody off?" I asked him, holding the puppy up to him. He took her off me and sneered at her - I knew he was just teasing.
"She looks shifty to me, Bill." As if on cue, the puppy started to pee - on Dad. His face fell and he turned to me, looking tired and unhappy, while Mum put a hand to her mouth in a weak effort to hide her smile and laughter. "I told you," he said to me. "She's sleeping outside."
"On my bed. I'll clean up after her and feed her and everything!"
"You're doing that anyway, but she can sleep outside - at least until she's toilet trained." He gave her back to me. "I'm going to change my shirt." Dad left and Mum smiled at the puppy.
"Do you like her?" Mum asked. I grinned, holding the pup to my chest.
"I love her!" I laughed. "Oh my God, I've always wanted a dog."
"We know," Mum told me. "That's why we got her."
I gently set the puppy down on the floor and knelt down behind her. I pat her head and soft ears, and Mum got down on the floor with me. She wiggled her fingers in front of the dog and coaxed the yawning, stumbling critter over.
"What's your name pupper?" I asked the dog. She looked up at me with a big smile, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and bounced over excitedly. "Hmm... I'll have to think on it."