Happy B'day Alice (Short Story)

She stood in front of the mirror in the morning.

The face on the mirror showed signs of aging - wrinkles, grey hairs, the suppleness of the lips curling up into itself, the neck getting longer...

It's her 60th birthday.

She has all that she ever wanted in her life - married the man she loved, have two sons who are young men, married, and well employed, have two gorgeous daughter-in-laws who treat her like their own mother, and most of all, lives in a house built by her husband for her, for the past 20 years; has a garden of her own with her favourite flowers, and a chocolate-brown she-Labrador who recently gifted her with 7 little naughty pups. She spends endless days of her retired life with those pups in her garden, and in the warm hug of her husband at nights, even after 35 years of married life.

She has all the reasons to be a happy woman in life but she didn't feel so that morning, staring at her age-beaten face in the mirror. Is it the growing age or is it something else?

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The alarm clock rang at 5.30 in the morning. Though unlikely of her, she wanted to go for an early morning walk and Ben had agreed to accompany her. She got up, got into her track suit and tried to wake up Ben but the old man protested at being woken up at such an early hour.

She smiled at the sleepy old man, placed a kiss on his cheek for which he smiled in his sleepiness, and she set out for the walk. For some reason she felt happy that she was alone, walking through the familiar streets: she had her silence and could observe the life around her without any distractions - the early birds leaving their nests, the early-morning joggers with their ears plugged-in with loud music unheard to the rest of the world, the young couples who made arrangement to meet at such an early hour, the old men and women like her walking as fast as their age would let them... She felt young even after six decades of life on this Earth.

She walked rather brisk for her age. She inhaled the fresh soil after yesterday night's rain and it heightened her spirits. She walked, walked, walked...until she neared a cemetery.

There was a funeral procession going on, all dressed in black. It's natural that her spirit could be dampened with such a sight, but she would have normally passed by and returned home but for that young man standing alone at the entrance of the cemetery.

She just had to set her eyes on him and she froze in her feet. She muttered: "Mat... Mathew..."

She couldn't believe her eyes. She stood at her feet for a moment or so.

She walked up to the young man. He smiled a weak smile at her.

"Mathew..." she uttered.

The young man said: "Please join. The funeral is at 6.30. Thank you for joining us."

She walked in a daze to the funeral place. She saw many men, stone faced, and many women, all weeping.

There was this coffin that all were gathered around. She felt weak, she almost collapsed but a few men around her caught her and made her sit on a chair.

She felt her head reeling. She felt like she was in another world. She was all surrounded by strange men lamenting at the death of Mathew she knew almost 3 decades ago, and women staring at her for her unorthodox dress for a funeral.

She never realised until then that Mat lived in her, without she herself realising it.

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Mathew...

Mathew, who at some point of time became 'Mat' to her; one who wrote poems after poems on her beauty - her smile, her neck, her long and slender figure... Mat, she first made love with; Mat, who proposed to her first; Mat, who she left for another man because she saw no promise in him to be a successful man but just a looser of a romantic. Mat...

She loved him all along. She realised it now. Mat...

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She stood in front of the mirror, looking at her now longer neck that Mat once adored, kissed; at her short grey hair which was long and black that Mat used to play with; the wrinkled lips that was once supple and that touched Mat's with much passion...

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"Alice... ALICE..."

She was thrown off her reverie by Ben's voice.

She splashed her face with the ice-cold water that came off the tap. She looked at the mirror again; took the warm towel to her face and made herself look fresher.

"I'M COMING," she shouted back rather awkwardly.

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Anyways, it's Alice's 60th B'day; so let us all wish her a very Happy B'day!