The Mother Of All Birthdays Almost every year to the date of her birthday, Doris Mayfield and her three children begin to plan her celebration. Doris, a fifty-seven year old retired nurse from Baltimore, always participated in the planning of her birthday ever since the surprise party that was thrown for her on her thirtieth birthday. Doris was traumatized and lived in deep fear of surprise birthdays ever since that day. During her thirtieth surprise party, Doris and her husband walked into the house expecting no one to be home. Upon entrance into her their home, Doris and her husband of nine years, Thomas, (who was fifty eight at the time) frightened by the thunderous burst of �surprise!� by the crowd of over seventy people, dropped their boxes of antique Italian vases and precious glassware. The two collapsed boxes were worth nothing but the items inside were priceless. Not only were the items worthless, but Thomas, suffered a mild heart attack and a burst aneurysm. The entire scene was a disaster. Thomas lived but remained less than fifteen percent of what he was due to the part of the brain that was damaged in the bursting of the aneurysm. Thomas now rarely leaves his home and at the age of eighty five, he has developed Alzheimer�s. Needless to say, Thomas� weak condition has left him a huge burden to his family but Doris never thought for one minute that he was such. Even though she was still relatively young and vital, the thought of divorcing or sending her husband to a nursing home to live never crossed her mind. The love these two had for each other was unmatchable. This particular birthday for Doris was going to be a special one. Not only was her whole family scheduled to be there but her mother, ninety-one year old Edna Gray wanted to come. She and her daughter rarely spoke in over twenty-five years because of her marriage to her husband. Edna was against it because Thomas was only six years younger than she was. Like any mother, Edna thought that Thomas wasn�t good enough for her daughter and she thought that he was a little too old. Though they were common concerns by a mother of a daughter, it did little to their relationship that fizzled over time. On the morning of her party, Doris, Edna, Thomas and the three children, Michael, Todd and Terry were at the house preparing food and setting up the pool area outside for guests when they arrive. The women did the cooking and the men helped with the manual labor. Lifting heavy chairs and setting up the entertainment. By the time the first guest had arrived, Edna made her way up to the bedroom where Thomas called home and pulled him aside to talk. Very uncharacteristically, Edna and apologized for the twenty five years of pain and exile she caused him and her daughter. At ninety-one, she felt sorry that she never really knew her grandsons Michael, Todd and Terry. She missed out on all the important events in their lives only because she wanted to be cruel. The two seniors hugged and put an end to a quarter century feud. The guests were arriving shortly after two. The party girl was decked out in a sophisticated black pant suit from Dolce and Gabana and sported a pair of stylish black shoes from Gucci. Not to be outdone, the Prada hand bag that Doris sported simply screamed �look at me.� All of Doris� friend and former coworkers came from all over to pay respect to their friend. Most notably there was Saundra who came from Alexandria, Virginia and Peter who commuted from Washington, DC. The party was a huge success. Doris received a standing ovation as her three boys paid tribute to their mother while showing a collage of home videos of the family over the years. Michael stood up and toasted his mother for her strength and support no matter what. Todd thanked his mother for supporting his financial needs as he struggled to pay his way through medical school and Terry thanked his mother for supporting his desire to become an actor. The hallmark guest speaker was Edna who told the entire party that she didn�t deserve such an understanding daughter like Doris. It brought the entire party to tears when the woman they knew existed but had never seen stood up and told her daughter that she loves her and that she would forever be sorry that she lost so many years of their lives. Desperate to move on past the tears and sadness of the past, Michael decided to be the first one to hand his present to his mother. It was getting late and the time was very important for the gift. Michael�s gift came as a set. The first part was a mega million lottery ticket. Doris played the lottery for years much to the dismay of her children and friends and family. Everyone thought that she had a sickness when it came to the lottery. Doris swore that she would never stop playing the lottery until she won. The ticket was a gag gift from Michael who was a notorious practical joker of the family. The second gift was from all the three boys. It was a all expenses paid ticket to a cruise all around Europe. Michael, Todd and Terry always wanted to send their mother away on a vacation because she spent the last twenty-five years caring for their father, working and putting them through school. She never took a vacation nor had she ever complained. This was her time and they wanted it to be special. They arranged a schedule for their father�s care so she wouldn�t have anything to worry about and they even took the liberty of arranging a personal tour guide for her. This was the greatest gif of all but it wasn�t the last. At eight thirty, the lottery drawing was held. As a gag, Michael decided to turn on the television and watch as his mother lost the lottery for the umpteenth time. Her numbers were, 13, 7, 23, 37, 8, 4 and 11, the same number she had been picking for thirty years and never won a dime with. When the lottery numbers were announced on eyewitness news, everyone stood up and looked on in anticipation. The numbers were called: 23, 11, 13, 37, 4, 7 and 8. Almost like the ultimate slap in the face, all the numbers were called but none were in the order that were required to even receive a small percentage of the winnings. Doris just shrugged her shoulders, tore up the ticket and went back to the party. But the party wasn�t over for Thomas. Though he wasn�t who he used to be, he was well enough to buy a ticket that day as well. As everyone stood up to head back outside at the pool, Thomas stood up and with great bass in his voice screamed to the top of his lungs: �I won, I won!� �What?� Michael exclaimed almost as loudly as his father. �I won the lottery. I played those numbers and won. This was my day.� Everyone gathered around Thomas and each took hold of the ticket to take a good look at a little piece of paper that was worth well over three hundred million dollars. Doris dropped to her knees to thank god for her winnings and blessings. The three kids hugged each other and their grandmother Edna and thought about the glory days ahead. Thomas wanted to celebrate. Alone, he told everyone that he was going to the sore to buy the most expensive bottle of wine they had. He wanted to celebrate and celebrate hard. At eighty five years old, though, he didn�t seem to consider his health too much but I guess that at the time of great excitement, ones own personal healthy is not very important. The tremendous excitement of the winning ticket was far too great for the party to consider that there was a birthday girl still celebrating. Doris was making plans to travel all over the world and the kids were just excited to pay of school loans. Almost an hour after winning the lottery, Thomas went to the store to buy some wine. He returned with five bottles of vintage chardonnay. And everyone partied until dusk. Most of the guests had gone by morning but there were a lot left over who were too drunk to drive home. When Doris awoke, she found her husband was not in bed. She walked downstairs where Edna was cooking breakfast and many of her guests were watching TV or talking about the events of the night before. Doris asked everyone if they had seen her husband but no one had. They all assumed that he was in bed. When Terry came downstairs, he noticed that there was a note on the front door that read: �Open.� Terry called for Michael and Todd to come downstairs immediately then eh read the note aloud. �Dear friends and family, I hope you enjoyed the party last night. To my dear Doris, I want to thank you for selflessly taking care of me all these years. You were a rock and I�ll always love you for that. To my children, you were the best kids anyone could ever have. I am proud of you and I love you dearly. However, I must to what I have to do. I have taken the winning lottery ticket and given it to my illegitimate daughter I have been keeping a secret from you for thirty years. I will not tell you where she lives or why I have done this. By the time you have read this, I would be dead. You may find me in the Honda at the north east end of Marion Lake with a pistol at my side. Family, I have killed myself for reasons that are k known only to me. I am old with ailments and the though of all that money finally coming to me when I have the least of time left to enjoy it was far too much for me to handle. I am sorry, but what�s done is done.� The family was in grave disbelief but their fears were confirmed when they all headed down to the site where Thomas had claimed to kill himself. When the many cars of the family and friends that were at the house arrived, there was the blue Honda at the northeast end of Lake Marion. Inside was Thomas lying in a pool of his own blood with one eye open and one eye closed. It looked almost as if he was winking at his family at his betrayal. Michael ran to the payphone nearby to call the police and Doris and the rest of the gang just stood there in disbelief. Edna touched her distraught daughters� shoulder and said to her as loudly as her frail voice would reach: �I told you not to marry him.� Jeffrey L. Williams, Jr.
Copyright © 2004 Skyler Drevan |