cancer season begins

Friday night: distractions, detours, a little birthday.

K says to L, what do you wish for this coming year? And L answers simply: peace.

*

To mark her birthday, L has booked tickets for a show — a sad lesbian film, she tells us. I come ready to cry, but it turns out the film is more hopeful than what was billed. We end up laughing an unexpected lot.

What’s also unexpected is the viewing experience, which is a bit of a circus. A woman two seats from L practically yells a sneeze during one emotional scene. An unknown alarm goes off in the middle of the theatre. And when we finally get to see the onscreen lovers run into each other after decades, it is to the soundtrack of intergalactic battle bleeding in from the theatre across the hall.

*

We head off in search of dessert after. J leads the way as he walks behind us. “Turn left!” we hear, so we careen from darkness into one long, brightly lit corridor. Many roads are crossed to get to Fortune Centre, though it’s half closed by the time we arrive. No bar, restaurant, or dessert place wants to take us. 

So we’re on the road again, and finally, in the last half hour of L’s birthday, we close with cold, sweet, sticky dessert. There’s screaming. There’s laughter. There’s love, and very best wishes.

Happy birthday, L. May peace always find a home with you.