In Parties

I'm just finishing up the last of the phone calls after Arne's "performance" yesterday. My parents should be back sometime today, which is good: watching my uncle is a full-time job and I really need help. We picked up Duncan at the Shelbyville Credit Union, and took him back to the house. Then Arne asked Duncan if he'd get Blake into the cat carrier. Duncan looked really upset about that (I was upset too, as was Blake) but he managed to get Blake into the carrier. We then picked up a number of things from the basement and put them in the car. The Aztec Tomb was too big to carry, and smelled like cat piss, so we didn't have to bring that. I drove and Duncan sat in the backseat with the rings, hankerchiefs, boxes and cat carrier. Arne gave directions, or tried to, but I managed to get to the party without his help. It was on Sharon Park Drive, and Duncan said, "Oh, my friend April lives here." Nothing seemed to be stirring at April's house or the one next door. We were across the street for the party.
The rest is all a blur of terrified children, terrified cat, and terrified Duncan. Arne had Duncan put a yellow bow tie on Blake, and Blake didn't like that and launched himself off Duncan's face into the birthday cake. Arne tried to divert attention from that, but once he started doing ring tricks it all collapsed when he asked, "But, where did the lighter fluid come from?" We got the cat out of the cake before Arne torched the table. I was trying to put out the table and retrieve the cat and calm down the parents. It took a while to get Arne, the cat, and Duncan out and into the car. I drove Duncan to his home (the Andersons didn't move after all) and did the official apology to his mother for bringing her son home with bilateral cat scratches on his face and scorched shirt cuffs. I asked Duncan, before his mother put a lot of hydrogen peroxide on him, if he wanted to go to brunch in Toronto on Sunday before we shop for his friend April and go to the Vatikan. I had to make up somehow for his evening.