A surprise party

A Surprise Party

Kelly’s relationship to her boyfriend James was going fairly well. They went out on a date at least once every week, sometimes twice. There had been no fights, no real arguments. They even agreed on what their favourite Shakespearean play was: the Scottish play – Macbeth. The only difference there was that he didn’t like the Weird Sisters, the witches, said that they sounded unrealistic to him. But she liked them. They reminded her of people she had grown up with.. She had even played the part of one of the witches in a high school play.

 She wanted to feel that he was more seriously committed to the relationship than what she felt she got from him now. There was just a little extra bit more that she needed before she could see it as long term.

She had an idea as to help with that. She would throw a surprise birthday party for him. He didn’t know that she had discovered when his birthday was. One night when he went off to the washroom in her apartment, she rushed over to the closet where his coat was hanging. She knew that he kept his wallet in one of his coat pockets. She found his driver’s licence, on which his date of birth could be found. As it turned out, it was coming up in two weeks time, on February 24^th. It was on a Wednesday, a night when they didn’t usually go out. So she felt fairly safe that there would be no plans that got in the way.

So she told their friends about the event that she was planning. All ten promised to come, even her Goth friend Diana, whom James thought was very funny with her talk about ‘dark powers’. They would all meet first at the coffee shop a short walk down the road from James’ house, leave their cars in that parking lot and go together to his house.

It was too late in the month for her to organize the party around a Valentine theme, so Kelly made it a Macbeth theme. She, Diana, and another friend Leigh wore all black, to represent the Weird Sisters. She wished Shakespeare had given them names, but instead each wore a number, one, two, and three, as they had in her school play. Kelly made pointed cardboard hats that they could unfold and put on when they arrived. Their remaining female friends and their male friends all wore tartan shirts. One guy, Angus, wore a kilt underneath a pair of jogging bottoms, to be taken off upon arrival, so his skinny legs would not be exposed to the cold of a northern February evening..

           She had bought some canned haggis of a kind that she and James had bought and enjoyed on Robbie Burns birthday on January 25. She had worn a tartan top that she could not find when she was looking for something for one of the other girls to wear. And in the same bag with the haggis were packages of shortbread and several bottles of scotch. This would be a surprise birthday party that he would never forget, even under the influence of whisky. Maybe that might lead him a little farther in the path of commitment, knowing how much she cared for him

           It was clear to Kelly that James did not suspect a thing. 

James at Home that Night

James was home alone early that evening – all except for his black dog Varlet. Only a dim light illuminated just slightly the living room where James and Varlet sat almost motionless.  He had been thinking about his relationship with Kelley. It seemed alright in a nice, somewhat romantic sort of way, but there seemed to be something missing, a kind of sharing that he felt they did not yet have, and might not be able to achieve. He was just about to engage in a test that might tell him something concerning their future together.

 In front of dog and man was a blouse, a tartan top that hung from a hanger attached to a hook stuck into the ceiling. He was pointing a long thin metal object at it. No motion of any kind took place. In a way that would belong to a conversation he felt he could not have with Kelley as their relationship then was, he was kind of disappointed in the result.

He fell into a silence that was soon to be shattered like cheap glass. Knowing that James often didn’t lock the door, Kelley opened the door and the companionable crowd then strolled boldly in. She turned the lights on bright. What both Kelley and James were to see shocked and surprised them.

“What are you doing James? And how did you end up with my tartan top?”

“You might not like this, but I had wondered whether you were a witch, what with your love of the Weird sisters and all. And I had read in a book long in my family that if you point a dousing rod at an article of someone’s clothing, if it moves then the person is a witch.” He looked at Kelley with eyes that reflected both caring and disappointment.

Kelley was normally rather good at exercising self control. With her family history of a touch of the supernatural going back deep in time, she had learned how to avoid being seen to exhibit hers. This situation was different. It took her by surprise. Rightly sussing the negative part of the look that she was receiving from James, she conjured up her forces without willing herself to do so. Her fingers glowed and a bolt of light shot out, heading directly at James. She had just begun a gasp of fear when another light flashed in the opposite direction. It shot out of the eyes of the unplanned target, and out of those of Varlet, his familiar. . While both Kelley and James were joyfully surprised, that was nothing like the reaction of their friends. Diana’s white fact turned completely read. All of them turned and ran, not wanting to experience anymore of what they had just witnessed. Angus took off without putting his jogging bottoms back over his kilt.

After their company left, the couple stepped into each other’s arms. They knew now that they were quite literally kindred spirits. Both knew that they would have had to make up a really good story that would explain to their friends explain what had happened. But first they had other stories to tell, ones surprising while yet true.