Chapter 16A
nna hangs up the phone and runs outside in her pajamas.
“You get right back here!” Connie says. “Where do you think—”
“Daddy said to look outside for my surprise.”
Surprise? Will he never stop trying to win Anna’s affec—damn it. How could she forget Anna’s birthday?
“Get back in here, birthday girl, and put some clothes on. That way you’ll live to be nine.” Anna races past before she can give her a hug.
Ceci barrels into her mother. “What did she get? I want to see.”
“Then you’d better get dressed, too.”
By the time Connie’s slipped into her sweats, Anna’s already out the door, examining a huge cake made from snow with “Happy Birthday Anna” spelled out in a rainbow of Play-Doh. There’s eight pink tapers, six of them still burning, and a green one, to grow on. A shallow
