The gray colored sky indicated that a storm was brewing, spoiling our plans for the day. We planned to go to the cinema first and then to the pool to celebrate my cousin's 9th birthday. I was visiting for the holiday, staying with my aunt, her husband, and my three cousins. I looked up to the sky and knew we weren't going to make it to the pool and even if we did, nobody wants to swim under the rain and catch a cold later.
We barely made it to the car before nature struck, the rain came pouring down like it was timing us. I looked over at my cousin's face and saw the frown on her face, every child deserves to have a great birthday. The new plan was to wait out the storm. Three hours passed and it didn't look like the rain was stopping soon, the skies only turned darker.
To add to the problem, two of my cousins had a huge fear of thunder because of the loud noise so it was even hard to have fun in the house with a bunch of scared children in the house so they were with my aunt in the room and an idea struck me in the head.
If we couldn't go to the cinema, we were going to bring the cinema to us
I needed my uncle's help if I was going to pull it off. We pulled the couches in the parlor together, leaving space in the middle. I went to my room and pulled out the heavy blankets, laying them over the couches to form a tent.
My uncle had an inverter so power supply was not an issue. The storm's intensity grew, killing whatever little hope we had of going out.
We got Christmas lights, fixing them between the chairs to cover the insides of the tent. All that was left was food and a good movie. My cousins, all girls were very big fans of Beauty and the Beast because of all the talking tea cups and candles. We set it up on my uncle's laptop and he put popcorn in the microwave.
He called out to the kids to come to the parlor. The look on their face said it all, we did good. They excitedly rushed under the tent, admiring the lights and the pillows we put under. The popcorn was ready, my aunt from it under the tent and we all snuggled, watching the movie like we hadn't seen it before with the storm now setting the perfect scene for the movie.
"Daddy, thank you," she said. He informed her it was my idea, he had only helped. I could tell she loved it. She moved closer to me and hugged me tight.
It wasn't the birthday she wanted but it wasn't a terrible one either.