Spotlight

Ever since an ex-colleague told me about her family tradition of hiding birthday presents around the house for the birthday person to find, we have done the same. Even today, for a 26th birthday. Under a bed, in the second-hand wrapping paper pile, under cushions, between books on a bookshelf…
 
Sometimes we forget where we’ve hidden them and the hiders have to join the hunt.
 
Today we had a first: in a box on a shelf in a corner of an untidy room , the birthday person found a parcel we hadn’t hidden. From a previous year? No-one recognised the wrapping paper. The birthday person started to open it and we all agreed the style of wrapping did not belong to one of us. Unwrapped, the contents seemed to match me more than anyone else – the label contained the number of my next birthday and nothing more, and the book of poems was one I already have. Very curious.


Black and white in colour 74



Nearly midnight and I have been able to shine some light on the mystery. The present has been in that box for seven years and is now the past. It is not my present and I am glad of that.