This is the story of a shrine. A very special shrine, set up to welcome the new Harry Potter book to our house.

The Father shined up the aluminum table, so the UPS man would have a safe place to put the package. The Father also took some paint and, on a piece of cardboard, he wrote Welcome, Harry! on it in flowing script, in shades of purple and blue. He placed the cardboard on the aluminum table, and set both just outside the front door.

Youngest Son came out, blinking sleepily (for it was still early in the morning on THE Saturday) and saw what Father had done. A thought wobbled through the son's sleepy head, and he dashed to get some dark purple glitter Mother had given him just the day before (as she worked diligently in the messy garage). Carefully, Youngest Son sprinkled purple glitter on the sign.

He looked at the shrine and his forehead puckered. Surely there was something missing? Friends! Of course! And the boy scampered back into the house and combed his room for those special friends worthy of the honor of welcoming Harry Potter Book Six. Coming back out, he put Wizard Bear down, sitting on one corner of the sign. Flanking Wizard Bear were two dragons (for company, you know). Youngest Son thought some more, before smiling. The bear and the dragons would welcome Harry properly.

But what about the UPS man? Youngest Son hopped into the kitchen (for now he was almost awake, and getting bouncy at the thought of the new Harry Potter book) and took out some cookies. He put the cookies (four, because one of them fell and he couldn't put the dirty one in the bag so he ate it instead) into a ziplock bag and ran outside again to the shrine and placed the bag carefully on the corner of the sign opposite the dragons and the bear and stepped back again.

(I'm sure you know that dragons love cookies. Youngest son knew this, which is why he put them out of the dragons' reach.)

The boy frowned as questions crowded themselves in his brain. Finally, he pulled out a pencil from the pocket in his pajama bottoms and wrote carefully by the bear and the dragons, 'don't take these!' with arrows going left, to the bear and the two dragons. To make the UPS man feel better (because he didn't want to hurt his feelings), Youngest Son wrote '4 UPS man' with an arrow pointing right, to the bag of cookies.

And just in case the UPS man got excited at the sight of the cookies, youngest son wrote 'RING DOOR BELL' to the right of the sign. After all, he wouldn't want the UPS man to take the cookies and forget to leave the book.

After all these preparations, Father, Mother, Oldest Son and Youngest Son all piled into the car to pick up a Dryer at the magical House of Dayle and Ken.

When they returned some hours later (after many adventures and an unscheduled stop at Donut Queen), there was *no* package on the table by the door. NO PACKAGE! Wizard Bear still sat, the dragons kept watch. The cookies remained untouched. Youngest Son's heart fell but he hid it bravely.

Youngest Son did some chores for Father, and when a call came to go play at a friend's house, he went, telling Wizard Bear to keep a sharp eye out for the UPS man.

It wasn't until later that Father realized the new Harry Potter book had been delivered by the Mail Man. The bear and the dragons went back into Youngest Son's room to sulk. The cookies went on top of the book, which came inside to wait for Youngest Son, and were eventually devoured as he read Chapter One many hours later.

And the aluminum table is left by the front door, bereft of its moment of glory.