Timeless

Eric scrolled through the endless birthday wishes posted on his Facebook timeline, idly hitting the ‘like’ button as he did. There were so many that his thumb had begun to grow weary. Most of them were from strangers and acquaintances from work. None of them really mattered.

   With a sigh, he put down his phone. He reached over and took a swig from the bottle of whiskey on the coffee table before setting it back down and rising from his seat. He had been up since midnight, the clock on the mantelpiece told him it was almost midday now.

    The letterbox on the door rattled followed by a thumping sound on the floor. Eric walked towards the hallway and stopped. At his feet was a large pile of brightly coloured envelopes. He scooped them up and returned to his chair, unscrewing the bottle and taking another swig before beginning to open every single card.

    The first two or three cards were vaguely amusing but the amusement wore thin after the first couple. The ages printed in bright colours ranged from 20 to 30 years old, a couple were free of numbers, and there was one that just stated that he was one year older than last year.

   Tossing the cards to one side, he rose from his seat again. With the whiskey bottle in his hand, he headed for the bathroom. He put the bottle down and stood in front of the sink, looking in the mirror opposite him.

   His familiar reflection looked back. It was exactly the same as the millions of times he had looked at it. In every photo he had been in, it had always been the same. His dark brown eyes almost looked black in the muted light of the bathroom. His dark hair was kept short and neat and not a single grey strand had grown from his scalp. His face was free from blemishes and wrinkles, his lips never chapped.

   His phone began to ring from where he’d left it in the living room, and he shook himself out of his reverie. He grabbed his bottle and headed back to his seat, throwing himself down and picking up his phone in one elegant sweep.

   Eric looked at his phone screen to see who was calling; a slight smile formed over his lips as he accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear

‘Hey, Jason,’ Jason had started working at the corner shop at the same time Eric did, they had bonded over their love of music and whiskey. He had never in a million years thought that he would call him on his birthday, though, and started to regret ever adding it to his Facebook profile.

‘Happy birthday, E!’ Jason chirruped down the phone. Eric had to turn the volume down to save getting a burst eardrum, he smiled all the same

‘Thank you, man,’ He replied

‘I’ve just been reading all those birthday messages on your Facebook, have you seen the debate you’ve started?’ He asked. Eric frowned a little, taking another swig of whiskey

‘What debate?’ He asked

‘Everyone’s debating how old you are, my dude!’ Jason’s enthusiasm suddenly made sense. Eric sighed and leant back in his seat

‘So you called to see if you could win?’ He asked

‘Obviously! You’re my bro and everything but there is a lot of money at stake here if I lose this bet’ he said. The affectionate term confused him, but he was too curious to see what he meant about the bet rather than focus on being referred to as a sort of brother.

‘People are placing bets?’ Eric asked, surprised that people would go to such lengths. It wasn’t as though he was popular; he did not have much in the way of friends except Jason. Even he wasn’t close enough to be a real friend. He supposed this is what happens when you work in a shop in a small town, everyone is in your business.

‘Hell yeah!’ Jason replied ‘And as your favourite work-buddy, I didn’t think you’d be opposed to me phoning a friend’

   Eric sighed and took another swig of whiskey, idly looking at the pile of discarded birthday cards on the floor. He must have been aiming for the table but miscalculated in his inebriated state. He put down the bottle and redirected his attention back to the conversation. He had to get rid of Jason, though he liked him, he was not in the mood for this ‘banter’ as his friend would call it

‘Alright, I’m 25’ He said, picking the number at random from the card on top of the pile, the numbers in the corner in bold blue writing and framed by cartoon balloons. A delighted laugh sounded from the speaker of his phone

‘I knew it was either 24 or 25! You won’t regret this, man, I’ll split my winnings to buy you a drink’ He said. Eric’s lips twitched into a slight smile at this. Jason was a good man and hated his monotonous job working behind the till, the least Eric could do was help him earn some money from a tedious bet, even if it was a false answer.

‘You’re welcome, mate,’ the word sounded strange on his lips, he had not quite grown accustomed to the way people talked and he doubted he ever will. ‘I have to go, see you at work on Tuesday.’ He removed his phone from his ear, finger hovering over the “End Call” button

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Jason blurted before Eric had the chance to hang up. With a sigh he brought the phone back to his ear ‘You’re not coming out tonight then?’

   Eric thought it through. He had not expected Jason to invite him out for his birthday; he had never really considered it a day to celebrate. Not anymore, anyway. He had had many celebrations, surrounded by those he loved and cared for. Those days were gone now, he had no one left. Jason was and always will be, a colleague friend. Nobody can be a real friend if they don’t know the first thing about you, like your age, for instance.

‘I don’t know, J…’ Eric trailed off as the letterbox rattled again, this time a small white piece of paper floated down like a feather before settling on the red doormat.

    Eric slowly rose from his chair, lowering his phone to his side. He could still hear Jason’s protests, though not so loud now that he was away from his ear, as he tried to convince Eric to change his mind. He ignored him, intrigued by the paper, and approached it with caution. It was probably one of those flyers people post through the door to try to convince others to vote for them, or give money to a charity, but something about this paper told him otherwise.

   With Jason still rambling on about what a great experience the pair would have, Eric scooped up the paper with his free hand and shook it open. The scent of jasmine wafted from the paper, it became apparent by the spirally ink writing that it was a letter, and Eric’s heart panged with something verging on both excitement and dread. Eric swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and began reading the neat handwriting

Happy 100^th Birthday, Eric

Love,

The One and Only

Eric felt his phone slip from his hand and it shattered onto the floor. Then there was nothing, only silence. Eric was left alone staring at the letter from the one he loved, who had died eighty years ago…