Chapter 53- The Baby Shower.
Two weeks later was the baby shower. All the ladies had gone to Maria's house and decorated her living room. All the townsfolk were invited, because everyone was so excited about the upcoming birth of the baby who belonged to two of their own. Sally and Lightning walked up to the door of Chick and Maria's house. Sally wore a light pink sundress, and Lightning wore a nice pair of shorts and his red 95 shirt. On the fenceposts were blue and white balloons. There was a banner over the door. Lightning knocked.
It was opened a minute later by Maria. She hugged Sally excitedly.
"Hey Sally." She said. "Y'all come on in." they followed her into the living room, where everyone was waiting. Alice and Holley, the decorators, had really outdone themselves. There were streamers, balloons, banners, tables set with cloths, flowers, and other such decor. Everything had a racing theme. There were even a few tires set around the room.
"This looks great, Holley and Alice." Sally said, hugging them. "You two did amazing!"
"Anything for our favorite pregnant Mrs McQueen." Holley said, rubbing Sally's stomach. "Honestly, you look SO pretty."
Sally blushed slightly. "You're looking pretty cute yourself, Holley." Sally said. " Besides, it was you who convinced me to buy this shirt."
"Well, I have always been pretty good with fashion." Holley said. "Oh, look, their getting ready to start."
They walked over to the main area of the living room and Alice instructed Sally to sit in the rocking chair next to the gift table. Lightning sat on a folding chair beside her.
"Alright everybody!" Flo said, quieting the chatter. "As you all know, we're here today to celebrate Sally and Lightning's first baby, a son." Everyone cheered.
"Now, We're going to start with a game." Alice said, taking over. "You will be handed a piece of paper by Holley."
She nodded to Holley, who began to pass out the papers. "On your piece of paper, you're going to write when you think the baby will be born, and the name that you think they'll choose. Then you'll just stick the papers in that bowl. Whoever ends up closest, and we'll find that out in a few months, wins." Everyone started on their papers. Alice's looked something like this:
Date of birth: June Fourteenth, 3:46 am.
Name: Joseph Eric McQueen.
Once everyone was finished with their papers, they passed them up to Alice who put them into a bowl.
"Okay." Maria said. "We have one more game before cake. It's called, "Mystery baby food."
Everyone exchanged some uncomfortable looks.
"Out on this table," Maria started, gesturing to a folding table. "Are five jars of baby food. None of them are labeled. Now we all know that one of us ladies, by instinct, would be able to tell what food it was. So we're going to randomly choose five guys to do this."
there were groans from the guys. "So, I have all your names in this container, and I'm going to randomly select five. They will come over here, pick a jar, smell, guess, then taste. Here we go."
By this point all the guys were praying to God that they didn't get picked.
Maria opened the first paper, and had to stifle a laugh.
"And our first contestant is...Chick." She said.
He stood up. "I think you did that on purpose." He told his wife.
She smiled. "Go ahead."
He sighed and chose a jar that contained an yellow-orange substance. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed. His expression became confused. He sniffed it again.
"Time is ticking." Maria prompted. "You have five seconds."
"Peaches." He said. "Final answer is peaches."
there were a few laughs from the women in the group who knew what it REALLY was. Maria handed Him a baby spoon. He sighed, put the spoon into the food, then put it in his mouth. He gagged and tried to swallow it.
"Well?" Maria asked after he had nearly choked to death.
"That was NOT peaches." He said, gulping a glass of water. "What the heck was that!"
Maria looked at the list in her hand.
"Chicken and mixed vegetables with rice."
She answered, causing everyone watching howl with laughter.
He shook his head in disbelief. "And kids actually eat this?" He asked taking his seat and wiping his tongue with a napkin. Maria nodded.
"It's actually Justin's favorite food." She said.
Chick shuddered.
"Let's move on." Maria said, unfolding the next piece of paper.
"Doc." She said. "You're up." Doc walked confidently up to the table.
"Choose wisely." Maria advised. Doc looked down at the jars and chose a blue looking one. He opened it and sniffed.
"Five seconds." Maria said.
"Blueberry buckle." He said. "Final answer."
Lightning was confused. "Do they even make that?" He asked. Sally nodded.
Maria handed Doc a baby spoon, and he tried the food.
"I was right." He said happily, then turned to Maria. "Can I keep this?" He asked, taking another bite.
There were scattered laughs and Doc returned to his seat. Ramone had the next turn, then Mater.
"Alright." Maria said. "One more." She took out the last slip of paper.
"Lightning." She said. Lightning stood slowly.
"Go on." Sally told him, giving him a little nudge. He walked nervously up to the table and selected the last jar. It's contents were green. Lightning gulped nervously.
He sniffed the jar's contents. And a childhood memory flew to his mind. Himself in a high chair, his mother spooning his favorite food into his mouth. His favorite...
"Green beans." He said confidently. "final answer is green beans." He lifted the spoon to his mouth, tasted it, and smiled. He was right.
After cake, Sally and Lightning began to open presents. They got a baby crib from Doc and Alice, Car seat and Stroller set from Linda and Strip, baby outfits and shoes from Mater and Holley, A hand knit blanket from Holley, more baby clothes from Flo and Ramone, a few baby toys from Luigi and Guido, and a baby mobile from Red. They came to the last two presents. A tall box and a small bag. The box was from Chick, and the bag was from Maria. They opened the box first.
Ten boxes of diapers. There were scattered laughs.
"This doesn't have anything to do with babysitting a few weeks ago, does it?" Lightning asked Chick.
He shook his head. "Nothing at all."
They opened the bag and lifted out a little blanket sleeper. It was red, shaped like a driver's suit, and it said '95 is my daddy'.
"Aww!" Sally exclaimed, running her hand over the soft fabric. "Where did you find this!"
Maria smiled. "I made it." She replied.
"Thank you." Sally said. "Thank you everyone. You guys are the best."
