Dick, who is Dick...

It's the great flower caper Charlie Brown.

I got an email from mom last week that said, "I just got flowers for my birthday and the card said 'we love you - Dick'. I think your dad was trying to be funny."

My reply. "Dad doesn't do jokes - especially on flowers."

If dad didn't send the flowers, who did?

Before I explain our theory on the secret admirer let me preface the situation by saying this. We call the neighbor Dick. We do this because my aunt's husband came through the door once and called him Richard - which isn't even close to his name. This prompted dad to start calling him Dick - which then morphed into Dick head, weed, lick and smack. Needless to say the inside joke is that Dick lives across the driveway.

That being said, mom thought that the neighbor sent the flowers.

"I didn't send no goddamn flowers," he said. "I swear!"

That got me wondering if dad did it to be funny, but that theory was quickly thrown out when mom got dad's flowers on her actual birthday. His name was on that card. Those were roses, mystery flowers from Dick were not.

The next theory was someone at the flower shop crossed the orders and mom got somebody else's flowers. Not a far fetched theory at all. We decided that was the only explanation - it's a small town and it could happen.

The truth came out two days ago. My mom's sister asked mom's other sister if she got flowers. She found it odd that mom didn't call to thank her, and if the flowers didn't make it then she wasn't going to pay for them.

When my aunt asked my mom the light bulb flickered. Dick's mystery was solved. It wasn't Dick who sent the flowers.

It was aunt Vick.