Velma puts her bundt cake atop the formica end table. Patty centers it and inserts one of her dusty red house candles into bundt cake’s center hole. Five disposable lighters head towards the wick while the Happy Hutsons surround the delicacy. Gib swats them all away. It’s his house. He was the marine in ‘Nam, a cook, but still. “Marines don’t die they just go to hell and regroup,” proclaims the banner stretched from wall to wall. His lighter flick sends us into:

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Bewildered elderly neighbor who no one really knows groans, “Whose
birthday is it?”
Shh…It’s Jesus’s!
“Oh God, I didn’t know,” he replies.
Happy Birthday Dear Jesus
Happy Birthday to You