“Oh, I’m a good driver, don’t worry.” Elena went to her purse and got out her keys.
“You’ll be back before one o’clock, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m just going to go to the drinking fountain to take a Tylenol and then I’m off.”
The best route to take was to go to the grocery store, then the party store, then the thrift store for the costumes, but if she did that, then the dips would sit in the car and get warm. She’d have to go to the party store first and get the groceries on the way back. Elena’s list had specific directions for the party decorations. Jillian pulled into the Party City parking lot. The store was a warehouse, so she thought she should be able to find everything. Elena wanted posters or hanging boards that said something about the eighties. The list said the posters should say “It’s the ’80s!” or “’80s Party Time!” Jillian wrinkled her nose at the list. The only decorations she could find with the number 80 on them were birthday posters, and they all had graves and grim reapers on them. That would not do, she thought. There were some paper plates that said “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Girls Night” on them, with pictures of girls in aerobics outfits. They looked kind of eighties.
“Oooh,” said Jillian.
She could go through and take out the “Girls Night” plates, because “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was an eighties song.
She walked the aisles looking for things that would do and put these things in her basket. Neon balloons, neon streamers, neon Puffy Paint, two posters that said “Party” in metallic letters, some blank neon poster board, electric-blue crepe tablecloths, two packages of pink plastic forks, party hats with Michael Jackson on them, and party hats with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them.
“This’ll do fine,” she whispered.
“Okay, your total is sixty-five ninety-eight,” said the cashier.
Elena hadn’t given her a stipend! she realized.
“Umm,” she said.
But Elena would pay her back, and she did have the leftovers from her paycheck in her purse.
She skipped to the car and put the party favors in the trunk. Elena had Yankee Candle air fresheners in her trunk, and absolutely no crumbs embedded in the carpet.
“Mmmm, the cinnamon,” said Jillian.
The thrift store was fun, she thought. Her mission there was to pick up some eighties party costumes for the people who didn’t wear their own. Just so everyone could feel like they fit in, she guessed. This would be a breeze. She picked out a few formal dresses and then a few sweatshirts and some winter gloves.
“Your total is thirty-five dollars,” said the cashier. Jillian sighed.
“Whoa-kay,” she said.
It was already a little after noon, how did the time fly so fast? She was running out of money, so she had to cut a few corners, but it would be fine. Instead of the precut carrot sticks she got bags of carrots, and instead of the pre-mixed Hawaiian Punch she got packets of Kool-Aid. Other than that, she stuck to the list (buying the store brand dips and cheese, though, of course, because she had a discount card at that particular grocery store).
She loaded up the car, congratulated herself on not getting pulled over (and totally busted and ruined, but no good to dwell on that!) and getting everything before one o’clock, as she’d been asked.
She went into the church basement with an armload of her spoils and saw Elena there with a few of the other women from church. They were moving tables around and pointing at different parts of the room.
“Oh, thank god, where have you been?” asked Elena.
“Just on the errands. It’s before one, isn’t it?”
“Okay, bring all of the decorations down so we can get started.”
“Okay, hey, Elena, I can get you the receipts for this stuff, can you pay me back tonight?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Cool.”
It took three trips, since none of the women offered to help, but in the end it didn’t take all that long to get everything down into the basement. When she came down with the last bags of snacks, she noticed Elena looking mad at the bags in the middle of the floor.
“What is all this stuff?” she asked.
“It’s the decorations and costumes,” said Jillian.
“Yeah, but what’s this blank paper for? And there’s nothing that says ‘eighties.’”
“Oh, there weren’t any eighties decorations, so I thought we could, um, make some real quick.”
“Jillian, the eighties are really popular right now, are you sure you looked?”
“I looked everywhere, I couldn’t find anything.” Elena held up the Ninja Turtle party hats.
Jillian said, “Because it’s from the eighties.”
“Is it? Is it, Jillian? Because my boys watched this show, and they didn’t watch it in the eighties.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure it is. But, look, these are all eighties colors,” she said, kneeling down by the bag. “And I got these Puffy Pens.” She held a Puffy Pen up to Elena.
Elena sighed. “I just didn’t want this to look so amateurish, that’s all.”
“Oh, no, Elena, it’s going to look nice, I promise.”
“And what’s with all of these sweatshirts? What am I supposed to wear?”
“I thought we could cut off the necks,” said Jillian. “And we could make fingerless gloves.”
Elena didn’t respond. “Carol,” she said. Carol came over. “See what you can make of all this.”
Elena went off.
“I’m going to make some posters,” said Jillian. She picked up the poster board and markers and took them to a corner. She laid out a neon-orange sheet and, in bubble letters, wrote “’80s.” She got some tape and taped one of the signs that said “Party” to the bottom of it. Carol spread the tablecloths out and set out the plates and forks. Jillian walked to the table. She had that nice, floating, hilarious feeling that her Tylenol gave her and she lifted her hands a little high and set them on the plates. She stopped there for
