the birthday parties

She thought about this latest birthday party she was attending. Sonny’s cake had seven candles. Invites had also been thoughtfully received from Dexter and Jaigo (she knows too many women that do yoga). And the reality that the only invites she was now getting were from people with an average age of four, bounced around her brain like the child outside on the trampoline.

She thought back to when she was younger. From behind the chair she saw things she’d never seen. On the tv was a lady in a beautiful black dress. It was very short. And there was a man, with a beard just like her dad’s. ‘Those people look just like us’.

Hanging out at kid’s birthday parties had become too regular an occurrence. She felt no affinity with the little people that harangued her ankles and unpicked her seams. She had lost her innocence long ago. And just as she had everything sewn up, she couldn’t let those stitches come undone again.