Mother’s Day

One day, I was awakened by a sharp tap on my head. “What.....?” I mumbled under my blanket.

"I've got something very important to discuss with you... Come on,wake up !”

My sister, Stephy, snatched my blanket away to prevent me from going back to sleep again.

"Can't we discuss this at lunch? It's only 8 o'clock, you know?” I tried to pull another pillow after I took a peek at the alarm clock beside my bed.

"No, we can't because it's Mother's Day tomorrow and we haven't got anything planned yet, for your limited information," she added icily.

"Mother's Day?" I sat upright at once. Only then I realized that it was the second Saturday of May, the next day would be Mother's Day. And I hadn't prepared anything yet.

"Oh, no." I moaned. "Why didn't you remind me of that earlier?" I scrambled out of bed and began pacing the room. "We need to buy some carnations , a cake , a card, a...?”

“......and we need to buy them ourselves," she finished the line for me.

"Ourselves? Why? Where's Dad?" I asked.

"I wonder if you're really awake, Stephanie. Dad is out of the country, remember?” With that, she walked out of the room.

"Oh, no, where's Dad when we need him?" I complained aloud.

Stephy made a phone call to the flower shop and bought a dozen carnations which cost us $50 including the delivery fee. After that, we realized that we only had $10 left, which meant that we did not have enough money for the cake we planned to buy.

"So, now what?" I asked.

Stephy shrugged and said, "I suppose we'll have to sacrifice the cake now.” So, we decided to replace the cake with a card instead. But deep inside, we were both disappointed that we could not afford the cake for Mom.

On Sunday morning, the flower-delivery-man arrived at 9 o'clock. Mom was so shocked that she stood in the doorway gaping at the flowers until Stephy and I jumped out and shouted, "SURPRISE!" After that, Stephy and I told her how we ended up with the card instead of the cake. Mom told us that she didn't mind not having the cake, but the most important thing was that we behaved ourselves in future. We hugged each other and that was the best Mother's Day ever.

Vocabulary

mumbled : to speak or say something unclearly 含糊的

moaned : a complaint 抱怨

gaping : to look hard in surprise or wonder 目瞪口呆的注视