Nov 4: The surprise-surprise party

This month I am part of a group that is doing a flash fiction piece a day. We have prompts. The first was a red sweater. Flash fiction is usually a complete story under 750 words. One of the most famous which may or may not have been written by Hemingway. Today's prompt uses the word birthday. Baby shoes. For sale. Never worn."

Nov. 4 The Double Surprise Birthday

 

“When is he coming?” Joe asked Liliane.

“Soon, he promised me he would home right after the meeting.” And he had. She had been insistent. She hoped this surprise party with twenty friends, some from the neighborhood, some from the golf club would help their marriage.

Not that it was in serious trouble. More it was her frustration at her telling him something and he ignoring it. “Don’t worry, I’ll be home by seven.”

It was already 7:15.

The caterer had set out an assortment of canapes and nibblies. The birthday cake was decorated as the 7^th green from the club complete with a sand trap and a ball tittering on the edge of the hole. Brad Hampson, a film student at Boston University and who lived next door, was videoing the event.

By 7:30, she suggested that they start to eat rather than wait for Mike.

At 7:43 she received a text… “Meeting running late.”

She replied. “I don’t care, come home now.”

The people ate, drank, chatted. The table with the unopened presents was in one corner of the dining room.

Liliane had debated having dancing, because Mike loved to dance, but saw no point in putting on dance music. With the conversation no one would hear it anyway.

At 11, Brad filmed each person leaving and wishing Mike happy birthday. Some made jokes about the biggest surprise was that he was absent.

Mike did get home a little after midnight. Liliane was already in bed with the lights out. Because the downstairs was dark, he had not noticed the detritus of the party, she thought.

“Are you asleep?” he whispered.

“No, I’ve something to show you.”

She turned on the lights and reached for the laptop and played the video of his party. “Surprise, happy birthday, not,” she said.