Saturday, January 1, 2011

Story-A-Day #50: Fifty


FIFTY

New Year's Eve 2010. It was her fiftieth birthday. She used to hate that her birthday played second fiddle to the turning of the year. It was as though the start of her new year was never as important as the start of a new calendar year.

Things felt different this year though. An unseasonable warm spell had fallen over the region and the mountains of snow had been reduced to mere heaps of dirty snow. That in itself did not say much, but this year she was turning fifty.

As big as that was as a milestone, it didn't seem to matter all that much. It was just another year, another birthday with little consequence beyond the fact that she would be another year older. It felt right. Fitting.

She passed the courtyard, the focal centre of the city's downtown, and took a moment to watch the little droplets of water falling off the Christmas lights that glowed dimly in the gloomy afternoon.

This year, she would gather with friends as always and hope that no big deal was made.

She entered the market and bought some fresh produce, the wandered down to the dépanneur to buy a couple bottles of wine and some champagne. It would be a quiet night with a handful of close friends, just the way she wanted it. They would have a nice fondue for a late dinner, then ring in the new year with some bubbly and she would be happy knowing that she shared her birthday with the world.

She would be fifty in another three hours, which in the broader sense was nothing, a mere blip compared to the flipping to a whole new calendar.

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