Do You Believe?

Birthday Surprises

A week after Stephen's funeral,Mrs Collins moved in to stay with Tiffany with hope that she could help her move on from Stephen's death which was clearly impossible with the number of hours she spent sobbing, almost everything triggered her memories and tears followed after.

Her lessons were suspended until she got back on her feet, Paula stayed by her all the time which assured Mrs. Collins that there was a ray of hope,she tried to persuade Tiffany to go outside but she didn't fancy anything, she was like an emotionless and lifeless creature who kept crying and patiently waiting for death.

•••••••

"Four, five, six, seven," Tiffany mumbled, counting her steps as she came down the staircase. Funny, how seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months rolled by and a year had passed since she lost her father. Mrs. Collins was almost like her mother, she stayed with her and took good care of her without any hesitation. Sadly, her husband passed on two months after their wedding, he also had a terminal disease which she knew nothing about, so she could feel Tiffany's pain and also take care of her at the same time.

Although,she was good at parenting she wasn't as good as Stephen. Tiffany gave up writing and reading, she spent her time at the garden with Paula and forgot that the library ever existed,she spent her weekends chatting with a few of Mrs. Collins friends who came to visit whenever she was less busy. Other days,she studied hard and did her homework,ate in her room and slept whenever she was tired. She had already polished her personality to something boring and unlively, she switched from wearing a smile to rocking a frown, she was obviously the definition of an old lady filled with regrets of her younger years and could only vent out her anger on the world.

"Looking good, what's the occasion?" Mrs. Collins said,with a smile, Tiffany took a bath,wore a pair of denim jeans, a blue jumper over her white vest, she brushed her hair and packed her into a silky pony tail and most importantly she didn't forget her blue baseball boots which Mrs. Collins bought on a trip at Chicago. She looked different unlike the previous days which was why Mrs. Collins needed to ask her immediately.

"It's his birthday," she replied and Mrs. Collins' smile faded and her expression became gloomy. She was preparing for a summer camp at Toronto, Canada. She recently got a job as a teacher at an international highschool so in submission to the requests and demands of wealthy parents and students, trips were very often. She tried her best to talk Tiffany into sending an application letter to the school's website but she turned down the offer, she loved being home-schooled and would like it to remain that way.

Mrs. Collins wished she had time to celebrate Stephen's heavenly birthday with her but she didn't, sadly. She hugged Tiffany, kissed her forehead and hurriedly left for the taxi waiting for her outside, Tiffany stood at the door and waved at her continuously until the vehicle was out of sight, she got back in and decided to feed on the cake left in the refrigerator.

She took out a slice for herself,placed it on her plate and placed another on an empty plate, she kept the second plate on the table opposite to the seat, Stephen usually ate then she returned to her position.

"Happy birthday!" She exclaimed with a feign smile which turned to tears, she cried as memories of his previous birthdays explored her mind like wild horses,she remembered how clumsy he was on a certain birthday when he accidentally threw his cake every single moment was precious forgetting him wasn't hard

...it was impossible!,she felt like it was her fault for loving tragic endings now his story was exactly like what she wanted, she was praying and hoping that the heavens would give her another chance and everything would be like a dream and he never left but she woke up to see the same thing.

She was still sulking when Paula ran in, barking at the top of her voice, so loud that Tiffany had to follow her to inquire about what exactly was happening, maybe there was someone in the house or the mail man was passing by or maybe something startled her, she followed the furry creature without any objection and with a worried and dazed expression but finally let out a sigh of relief when she halted at the entrance of the library.

"Oh it's this place," she whispered as a teardrop pricked out of her right eye, she slowly opened the door and walked in before shutting the door behind her. Why was Paula bringing her there?,she hadn't visited the library ever since she lost Stephen so she expected a dusty environment but everything was still neat and we'll arranged just like the way Stephen left it, each book was on their respective shelves and the electric bulbs shone brighter than ever, she was shocked but calmed down after assuming that Mrs. Collins cleaned the place up, she slowly approached the shelves with shaky hands and was about to break down but paused when she remembered that Stephen had told her that crying wasn't allowed in the library.

Her eyes explored the place and she trailed her fingers on the little shelf Stephen had kept all her books,all twenty-six of her incomplete romance manuscripts.

Her gaze landed on Stephen's desk, unlike the last time it looked organised, surprisingly.. Paula ran to the desk and scurried under the table. Tiffany walked towards the table, sniffling and trying to hold back her tears.

She placed her finger on the typewriter and looked around the table after staring for a while she left his desk and headed to his shelf where he kept all his books both signed and unsigned copies of each and every one of em' , something attracted her to the top row, a blue coloured book with a post-it-note sticking out of it, she slowly pulled the book out of the shelf and recognized it as the book Stephen was writing a few years back, the book she had asked about the evening before he went to the afterlife, even if he wasn't around she was definitely going to check this out, as a way of feeling him around. Tiffany opened up the first chapter but scoffed at the first line which was surprisingly a question.