2-REVSUE

"Let me get this straight. You want two parties for Captain Gregg?" Martha was incredulous. "Both of them surprise parties?"

"Yeah . . . It's sure to work, Martha!" Jonathan bounced up and down on the back seat in his excitement. "He'll never guess they're for his birthday. You'll make a cake, won't you?"

"Two cakes?" Candy interjected.

Martha sighed. "More work, I see. Any particular kind you have in mind for an April Fool?"

Carolyn smiled when the car was filled with suggestions. Then she said quietly to Martha, "Remember when we had this discussion in November? You said you'd make an Angel Food cake, since that was appropriate for a ghost."

Martha grinned. "And you asked for a Devil's Food! I thought you just preferred chocolate! But now that I know the Captain . . . In a manner of speaking . . . " She shivered suddenly. "I still find it creepy that he's real."

"Ghosts aren't real, Martha." Candy spoke up, having been listening. "You know that!"

"Except for Captain Gregg. He's real!" Jonathan defended his absent hero.

"A real ghost." Candy said, scornfully, "But not a real person!"

"He is, too! Mom, tell her!" Jonathan insisted.

"Kids, we've had this discussion before." Carolyn said.

"Yeah, when you cut down his tree. Boy, was he mad at you, Mom!" Jonathan reminded her.

"I forgot about that," Candy was thoughtful. "You said he wasn't real, but that the thoughts and dreams of the man he was live on . . . Or something like that."

"They sure do." Martha muttered. "Sometimes I just want to hit him over the head, when he's being stubborn!"

"Mom gets mad and yells at him all the time." Candy said.

"And it hurts his feelings." Jonathan added.

Carolyn winced slightly. How did the conversation get from having a party to this?

"Except when he thunders back at her." Candy giggled. "So, can we have a couple of parties? Huh?"

"We'll think about it a bit more and let you know before we go home. How's that?"

Jonathan and Candy subsided into the back seat and started murmuring together – Making plans.

Martha looked at Carolyn with her eyebrows raised.

"You sort of want to do this, don't you?" she asked.

"Well," Carolyn defended herself, "The children want to do it, and really, Martha, the Captain hasn't celebrated a birthday in years!"

"Generations."

"That, too. I just think it would be . . . fun," she finished lamely.

"As long as I don't end up the April Fool." Martha grumbled. Then she brightened, and lowered her voice. "And I've just thought of the perfect cake to make for a ghost!"

"I thought the Devil's Food appropriate."

"This is even more so! A "Better Than Sex" cake!"

Carolyn sputtered with laughter. "You've got to be kidding, Martha! There isn't such a thing!"

"Oh, indeed there is!" Martha was grimly satisfied. "A Devil's Food cake to start with, to fit the old devil himself, then, when it comes out of the oven, poke holes in it and pour caramel sundae topping and sweetened condensed milk into all the holes, then when it's cool, cover it with whipped cream and chocolate chips or scrunched up pieces of chocolate bar or something. Yup, the perfect cake for him! Better than Sex! Maybe it'll remind him that although he's now on the spiritual plane and supposedly above all the desires of the flesh, he can still enjoy good, sweet chocolate!"

Shaking her head at Martha's audacity, Carolyn parked in front of the clothing store. "All right, mates, bail out and hit the decks here to start!"