Odd Prompts: A Magical Birthday Cake

You may be thinking, ‘this isn’t a Meerkat Prompt’, and you would be correct, it’s not. This ‘Odd Prompt’ is part of a new series, one inspired by the weekly writing challenge from More Odds than Ends. My first official step into this world sees my first prompt, ‘A Magical Birthday Cake’, as dreamt up by one Padre (apologies Padre, I’d link to your site, but I can’t seem to find a link). Here goes:

***

Timothy looked up at the ridiculously large, eight-layered cake, and shook his head. Eight candles – one for each decade of his life – burned brightly, but he did not feel their warmth or light in his tired soul, something he disguised from his gathered family. He forced himself to smile.

“Thank you, all, for being here, and thank you for this, ah, elaborate cake,” he declared. “Vincent, could you move my wheelchair a little closer please, so I can get to the candles?”

“Sure, dad,” Vincent, looking as handsome as ever, inadvertently sent a stab of envy through his father’s heart. He doesn’t realise how potent the gifts of youth really are. The son made sure the father was positioned closer to the table, and Tim watched his daughter, her husband, and their two teenage boys gather around. He stole a glance at his ‘baby’ sister, who sat to one side, in his blue armchair, smiling.

“What do you think of the cake, Timmy?” she asked.

Urgh, I hate that name. “It’s lovely, Val. A big, um, big, and very colourful. Never seen so many layers on one cake before.”

One for each decade, and each one is a different flavour,” Joyce, his daughter, announced. “Don’t ask me which one is which, it was Vincent’s idea to have it made.”

Tim craned his creaky neck behind him, and placed a leathery hand on his son’s own.

“Clever, interesting. Well, like I said, thank you to all of you, though you shouldn’t have made such a fuss over a silly old man. I guess I should make a wish, blow out these candles, no?”

“Give them a puff, grandad!” Freddy, the younger of Joyce’s children eagerly urged. Tim smiled.

“Don’t worry, still got some life in me lungs yet,” he promised. Oh Denise, I wish you were here to see all this, you’d find it so funny.

Tim unsteadily rose to his feet, and stared at the flickering, hypnotising lights. What I’d really wish for is more time with you, or to relive the best times, all over again.

He blew across the candles, as hard as his old body could, and took satisfaction from watching all of them go out. Small, wispy tufts of white smoke lazily drifted to the ceiling. Everyone chaired, and everyone joined in singing Happy Birthday. Tim listened, smiled, and laughed at all the appropriate times, but in his mind’s eye, he was elsewhere, remembering the day he had met his beloved. A faint tune, Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love, rung in his ears. A single tear pushed past Tim’s emotional walls, and fell, with unnerving precision, onto one of the candles.

He blinked, and closed his eyes to squeeze away any further sign of distress. The music grew louder, and confused, Tim opened his eyes again.

An impossible sight greeted him. He sat in a pub booth, his old, departed friend Charlie seated across from him, a cigarette in one hand, and a pint in the other. Wrapped up in a chequered coat, and laughing his head off, Charlie looked like a young man in his twenties. Tim looked at his hands, and saw none of the wrinkles that were his regular companions.

“And then, he said, he said…” Charlie wheezed from his own laughter, and Tim remembered. Recognition struck him like a lightening bolt.

“This is the Fox and Bone pub,” he stated. Charlie paused, giving him a knowing look.

“Yes it is, my friend, yes it is.”

“Wait, but, I…”

Charlie put his drink down, and stared at him. He sagely nodded.

“It’s good to see you, mate. It’s been a while.”

“I don’t understand…” Panic threatened Tim’s composure. Charlie reached out, and took his hands. Charlie’s fingers felt so warm, so real.

“Today is a very special day, don’t you remember? 1965, January the 22nd, perhaps the most important day of your life.”

“Oh, oh my god, but, I was just…”

“You made a wish, on a special day, before all those you love, and those who love you. Someone…” Charlie looked up at the ceiling. “… decided that love was so pure, so strong, that it should come true, at least for a while. They put me here, to explain it all.”

“Explain what?”

“You get to see her again, for a while. This won’t last forever, but think of it as a taste of eternity. One day, you’ll be back here, with her, with all of us, but you still have a way to go. You needed a boost, you see, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Your missus was always stubborn.”

“Am I dead? Have I died, and fallen into my birthday cake?”

“Good lord no. Be a shame to waste that cake, it looks gorgeous. I’ll let you in on a secret, the top layer is a rum cake, and your Joyce has soaked it in the stuff, so it might blow your socks off.”

“Hah, that sounds like Joyce. Charlie, it is so good to see you, there was so much I wanted to say…”

Charlie held a hand up. “You don’t need to, you’re my friend, my ‘brother from another mother’ as they say these days. Now, she’s coming, so I will make way. Enjoy yourself, both here, and there, and I see you again, soon, but not too soon.” Charlie patted Tim’s face, stood up, and left the pub. A second later, the door opened again, and Tim stood, mouth open, and heart pounding.

Against a backdrop of a brilliant white light, his auburn angel, demure and beautiful, walked in. Denise’s face split into the biggest smile, and a faintly reproachful, humorous look.

“Oh Tim, all these years, and you look ready to burst into tears, when you should be giving your old lady a kiss.”

Tim obliged, then pulled her close, sobbing into her shoulder. “I have missed you, I have missed you every day.”

“And I have missed you, you daft old fool, but we have some time, so I want to hear, from your lips, everything that’s been going on, whilst we dance to our song. Oh, and happy birthday, don’t get drunk on the rum cake.”

Tim laughed, and took Denise in hand, speaking to her of their children and their adventures, with Can’t Help Falling in Love playing in the background. For Tim, he felt renewed. It seemed love truly was magic.

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