christmas carols in september

Me, Dan, and Jon, we went to visit Wes at the hospital. We brought his buddy Mark with us, and Carol too, his obese girlfriend, both of whom were looking for somewhere warm to stay the night. Somewhere to stay where the cops don't kick you out at 2 am. Mark was in the middle of his 4th or 5th beer, and Carol was still making us listen to all her stories, and trying not to fall asleep mid-sentence.

One of the stories went something like this:

On Carol's 54th birthday, when it was September, Wes had promised to take her out for "something nice". Something nice, meaning somewhere away from the dirty New Brunswick streets. While Carol was waiting at the predetermined meeting place on George St, choking on nicotinic phlegm and reeking of urine, Mark found Wes on Easton Ave, drunk and groveling on the sidewalk. So Carol proceeded to celebrate her birthday without the boyfriend who failed to deliver.

At the end of the night, after all the disappointment and let-down, Carol returned to George St, to the Starbucks where high-class patrons cringe at the sight of crusty hair, where coffee drowns out the smell of filthy clothes. She sat on the wall bordering the courtyard, where fancy people drink tea with pinkies in the air.

As if she wasn't singled out already, a car suddenly pulled up on the corner, right in front of her, one of those cars with blaring red lights on top that make everybody turn and look.

And a robotic amplified voice said,

"Carol."

On a day when she should have been celebrating her 54th year of life, when the man of her life had done nothing to make her feel special, when the people sitting around her pretended she didn't exist, the voice said,

"Carol."

It said, "Somebody told us it was your birthday today."

The courtyard pinkies came down, and cringing eyes opened with curiosity.

"We want to wish you a happy birthday, and we hope to see you for many years to come."

And the red lights sped away.

And the fancy people, they came to wish her a happy birthday too, and some even gave her simple gifts of cake and money.