One Lap Around the Sun

This birthday invitation is for a morning in the yard, the kind that starts at ten because that is the only hour a one-year-old is reliably agreeable. A quilt goes down in the shade. There is sunscreen on the hall table, a folding table with lemonade and a pitcher that sweats through its coaster, and a sunhat that stays on for about four minutes.

The guest of honor has now been around the sun once and has no opinion about it. Grandparents arrive early and stand close. Cake comes out at noon, frosting goes everywhere, and the whole thing is over by one, which was the plan from the beginning. Nobody stays to help carry the cooler in, and the host does it anyway, in good spirits.