Anat decided not to call her parents. She didn’t rule it out. However, she decided she wasn’t ready.She sensed she would by the summer. She got Jerry all dressed in his new Lacoste outfit for his birthday party. She had a cake, Double Stuff,lots of pretzels, chips and popcorn. Marc was assigned to bring the pizza.
Of course, he went to L&B Spumoni Gardens and ordered several pies and lots of spumoni. He discovered the world’s best pizza oddly. As a kid before he got to the camp, he calls home and will likely be sprinkled over or buried in he went to Manhattan Beach Jewish Center Day Camp. The camp was kosher. When they went to Great Adventure they ate food out of coolers that survived the ride from Brooklyn to Jackson Township. When they went on the overnights to the dude ranch and Cooperstown food was packed in the coolers and served in the hotel dining rooms. But for some reason, they took the kids to get spumoni at L&B.
All the kids knew the place is famous for its pizza. So while the counselors waited in the line to buy them spumoni, the kids took a dollar out of their socks and moseyed over to the pizza line for a slice. Those days all kids carried a dollar or two in their socks for pizza or ice cream.
Marc couldn’t wait. While they were packing his pies he got a slice. It cost $3.50. My how times have changed. He jumped into Alana’s car and drove up to Riverside Park. Alana took the train up.
The two helped Anat and Dan set up the party. Jerry was running around but under the watchful eye of Anat and his extended family. Guests started to arrive. The kids played games in the park. Kids who won the games had the choice of Double Stuff or raisins. Oddly enough a few kids picked raisins.
Dan and Marc tossed around the Frisbee. Marc played it quite a bit in camp. They had strange rules. There was no way he’d make the kids follow them at today’s party. Every kid was slobbering over the pizza. Their parents, too. Many had spumoni. In many cases including Marc’s, it wound up dripping down their faces and all over their clothing. Anat didn’t care about that. She was glad she could give Jerry a good birthday. This was his first real birthday party. All his little friends were happy.
Jen and Anat were getting friendlier. They dropped their hatred from their camp days. Jen still felt bad for swamping Anat in the canoe. Especially since Anat at that time couldn’t swim.
They gathered around the Palpatine character cake. Okay, Anat was much kinder now. But she still has an affinity for the Emperor. Marc and Alana always had and will have their feelings toward the Dark Side.
The kids were munching on the cake. The weather was perfect. The Sisters of Mercy were softly playing in the background on Anat’s Bumpboxx. Some of the kids were on the swings when glass started hitting them in their necks. One kid who was not part of the party but happily swinging back and forth with his older sister screamed bloody murder.
Dan put his badge around his neck and began to search for Jay. He knew the glass wasn’t just flying because someone dropped a bottle.
Anat told Jen to watch over the kids. She huddled with Alana and Marc. She was worried about this all day. She knew Jay would know when Jerry’s birthday was. She knew Diane was out of prison. But she was cleaning herself up and no interest in Jay. She filed for divorce.
The trio stayed together. They wanted to find Jay and all three of them take him out.This time they wanted to take him out for good. They were done just knocking him out.
