Ellie’s Birthday Cake Caper

Ellie stood on her stepstool, watching her mom swirl the last bit of frosting onto Dad’s birthday cake. “Mmm. Yummy! Can I have a tiny wittle taste, pwease?” she begged.

“Not right now, Ellie,” Mom said, adding a final touch. “We’ll all get a big taste after dinner tonight.”

Mom stepped back with a sigh of satisfaction to admire the beautiful cake she’d been working on for most of the afternoon. “Not bad,” she said. “But I better cover it. Hmm. I wonder where that missing cake cover went.”

“Maybe it’s in da attic,” Ellie suggested. “We got lots of stuff up dere.”

“That’s for sure,” said Mom. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look up there.” She eyed Ellie then glanced again at the cake. “Ellie, why don’t you go in the family room and play? I don’t want you to ‘accidently’ stick your finger in the frosting while I’m gone.”

Ellie shook her head. “I won’t do dat, Mommy! I just wanna wook at da pwetty cake. Pwease?”

Mom wasn’t too sure about this idea. “Well, remember, it’s only for looking at, not touching,” she warned.

“Okay, Mommy.” Ellie smiled happily and turned to gaze at the cake.

Mom scooted the cake plate a bit further from the edge of the counter—out of Ellie’s reach. Then she headed upstairs to the attic to search for the missing cake cover. After a couple of minutes, she heard some strange sounds coming from downstairs. “Oh no!” she said to herself as she hurried back to the kitchen—and froze in the doorway.

Mom glanced at Ellie, who was standing in the corner with a horrified look on her face.

“Ellie, what’s going on in here?” Mom asked. Then she saw it—there, splattered all over the floor—was the birthday cake! Mom gasped. “Ellie! What have you done?”

“But, Mommy—”

Justin walked into the kitchen. “What’s up? Uh-oh,” he said, noticing his little sister cowering in the corner.

“I didn’ do it,” Ellie said. “It was Cookie, da doggy! And Fweckles! Not me!”

“What?” said Justin. “That’s impossible!”

“It’s twue! Cookie was chasing Fweckles.”

“But Cookie isn’t even allowed inside,” said Justin. “And Freckles is Jessie’s cat. Why would he be here in our house? You can’t be telling the truth.”

Ellie’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s twue! Fweckles jumped up dere!” She pointed to the countertop. “Then Cookie jumped dere.” She pointed to the stool. “And the cake crashed down dere!” She pointed to the toppled cake on the floor.

Mom crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “You expect me to believe such a story? Cookie and Freckles are nowhere around.” She sighed as she looked at the mess. “All my work! Ruined!”

Ellie’s bottom lip began to tremble as hot tears trickled down her cheeks.

“Wow, Ellie. Now what’ll we do for Dad’s birthday?” said Justin. “The cake’s the most important part!”

Ellie began to cry. “I didn’ dooooo it!”

“Don’t make things worse, Justin,” Mom said over Ellie’s cries. “I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose.” She took Ellie in her arms. “We know it was an accident, Ellie. But why did you touch the cake when I told you not to? Even worse, why are you lying to me about it?”

Ellie spoke through gasps and sobs. “It— was—Cookie! And Fweckles! Not meeeee!”

Just then, they heard a loud knock at the back door. Mom went to answer it. “Hi, Jessie. As you can see, we’re sort of in a mess.”

Jessie, their next-door neighbor, stood in the open doorway. “Oh, I know. I already saw it.”

“What?!” Mom and Justin said in unison.

“Yeah,” said Jessie. “I saw the whole thing. It was crazy!”

“Well, what was Ellie doing to knock that whole cake off the counter?”

“Oh, Ellie didn’t do it.”

“Really?” Justin asked.

Jessie sighed heavily and looked at the ruined cake on the floor. “I guess it was my fault. If I hadn’t taken Freckles outside—”

“Freckles?” asked Mom. “You mean your cat did do it?”

Jessie nodded. “Yeah. He suddenly took off from me. Then I heard him meowing—really loud—but I didn’t see him anywhere. So, I came over here to see if he had come into your yard. Ellie let me in. While I was talking to her, Freckles and Cookie both came racing through the door. It all happened so fast.”

“Uh-huh!” said Ellie, nodding.

“So, let me get this straight,” said Mom. “Cookie chased Freckles into the kitchen. Then Freckles leaped onto the counter and knocked the cake off while trying to get away from Cookie?”

Jessie nodded. “Yep.”

“Oh, dear! Ellie, Sweetie, I’m so sorry,” said Mom. She squeezed her daughter in a hug. “We should have believed you.”

“I—I feel so bad about this,” moaned Jessie.

“It isn’t your fault,” said Mom.

“But, the cake! All your hard work!”

“Yeah,” said Justin. “Poor Dad. No birthday cake. Poor us! No dessert tonight.”

Mom smiled weakly. “It is a shame,” she said. “But I can always go to the bakery.”

Suddenly, wild yowling and barking came from the backyard. Meooow-merow! Woof-woof-woof!

“Uh-oh!” said Justin as Freckles burst through the door with Cookie right on his heels.

“Nooo!!! Cookie! Freckles!” Jessie and Justin raced around the kitchen after their pets.

“See?” said Ellie, pointing and laughing. “Not me!”

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