Fiona wanted for only one thing when it came to her ninth birthday: she wanted to cook dinner for everyone ALL BY HERSELF!
“Can she invite her friends?”
“No,” said Mother. “You’ve already celebrated your birthday with your school friends. This is going to be just for the family.”
Fiona decided she would make “just a stew”, but first she had to have her own casserole dish. Mother took her to the second hand shop (“No, we are not buying a new one dear”) and they purchased one that had little birds on it for $7.60.
Then the stew had to be a decent enough beef cut, and had to have nearly every vegetable known to humanity in it.
Fiona didn’t just cut the beef into chunks, she made them perfect. The vegetables weren’t simply diced, they were sliced to exactness. Fiona spent hours preparing her dish. She set the table beautifully too. All was perfection!
Mother, Father, and Fiona’s two brothers sat down at the table and waited.
“Voila!” announced Fiona as she appeared with her stew in the beautiful dish with little birds on it.
And she dropped it.