Getting through the birthday crisis
Ana has finally reached the unimaginable age of 75. On the morning of her birthday, she admires herself in the bathroom mirror. She feels every square centimeter of her face: the age spots, the wrinkles, the medium blonde hair, which she can't stop dyeing like so many of her friends are doing. She examines a face damaged by a life without proper vanity. She never liked applying creams or going to the beauticians. Now she's seeing the results of her lack of self-care. Her friends look so good! Only Gloria doesn't deserve the name. Soon they will arrive for the birthday lunch she is giving her friends. They're sure to exclaim, full of falsehood, that she's fine, that none of them would give Ana more than 60 years...
After a few minutes groping her own face, neck, lap and arms, she finally turns her back on this image that has nothing to do with her youthful soul. Her soul is still full of illusions. Only yesterday, Ana looked on Facebook to see if she could find her old boyfriends and unrequited crushes. With a little patience and a lot of investigative skill, she found them one by one. Those who didn't have Facebook appeared in photographs posted by their relatives at Christmas parties, Easter lunches and christenings. Most of them were in worse shape than Ana, which did not fail to cause her a strange satisfaction. They were paunchy, bald, depressed, some of them perpetually dressed as if they were ready to go out to work. "Oh my goodness".
"What mystery is it, that most men work until they almost drop hard, as if they didn't deserve to rest and enjoy life without the crushing routine of work? Or as if they didn't have the desire to develop other skills that they never had time for?" Ana turns off her computer and goes to the kitchen to ask how the lunch arrangements are going. She needs to occupy her mind so that she doesn't become depressed at having reached the 75 mark. "It seems like something has changed from yesterday to today!" she grumbles as she tastes the meat sauce that Berenice has been preparing masterfully since she came to work for her exactly 35 years ago. "What's the matter, Ms. Ana? Is it salty?". "No, nothing. I was just thinking out loud. It's just that I'm feeling desperate about turning 75." "That's it, Ms. Ana. You look great. And you were so happy yesterday! It's been a long time since I've seen you like that..."
It's true. Yesterday she was '75 years - 1 day' and everything was different. Besides, talking to Alberto had been so good! Well, at least until he told her he was ill, undergoing radiotherapy. What an unfair world! A person like him should never be ill, someone with an unshakeable good humor, cultured and with good conversation, and who, after retiring, decided to explore the world. After this news, she had decided to stop researching the lives of her ex-boyfriends. But there was still Gilberto, whom she had never heard of until yesterday. He had disappeared from her group of friends. The last she had heard from him was that, after their break-up, he had started taking drugs. Maria said she had seen him one day, in the company of a new girlfriend, whom she didn't know. When the three of them met outside the cinema, they both hugged her, proclaiming loudly and with a toothpaste smile "Jesus loves you!". She said that they seemed illuminated by a newfound fervor, and that she had stood there wondering how long that religious verve would last. Gilberto was known in the group for not devoting much time to anything or anyone. " Hum, 'Jesus loves you'. Well, at least Jesus, right? Since he hadn't shown the slightest love for her when she found out she was pregnant. "I still can't believe what I found out yesterday on YouTube: a guy who was so full of life and friends, and who was such a hit with the girls with his golden curls and his guitar under his arm, had turned into an opaque and posh pastor, high up on his stage. I wonder how he deals with his own conscience?"
And Carlos? That kid was cute. In the short time he had been part of the group, he had charmed all the girls, one at a time, with elegance and dedication. He had the sweet look of a puppy, as if to say "Take me home". I wonder if he dated any of the group. I remember that his father was a lighthouse keeper, and lived in the company of the wind, in his lighthouse in the far reaches of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. His story was more like a novel. His mother had found out she was pregnant during the short time she had been living with his father at the lighthouse. As life in the isolation of the lighthouse was difficult and her new partner was depressed and withdrawn, she had decided to have an abortion. On the day that the boat carrying supplies and fuel to the lighthouse passed by to deliver the goods, she hitchhiked to the doctor in the nearest village. A month after her abortion, she had discovered that she was still pregnant. The doctor hadn't realized that she was pregnant with twins, and had only removed one fetus. Carlos struggled all his life with the feeling of having been a rejected son, which his mother found difficult to disguise. Every new woman he met was a new chance for redemption, but he was destined to spend his life in an eternal search for acceptance and love.
"Miss Ana, your friends are coming!". "Jesus, Berenice, I've lost track of time. Come here quickly and help me zipper up my dress. While I do my makeup, welcome them and serve them a soft drink." Half an hour later, when Ana had finally given up trying to disguise her wrinkles with make-up, she put on her perfume and went into the living room to meet her guests. "Ana, how beautiful! You don't even look 75! You haven't aged a bit since I met you," said Raquel, the vainest of the group. "I know, I know," she replied, while smiling to disguise a bad mood that insisted on surfacing. "Oh, girls, yesterday I got a bit of a rash, and since then I've spent all my time researching on the internet about the guys I've been interested in in this life". "I get that almost every month, but it passes soon after I discover the state of abandonment they're in," replies Nair, with her warm voice and expansive manner, and everyone bursts into laughter.
"What's the matter, Berenice, haven't you brought them their drinks yet?". "Don't fight with poor Berenice, Ana. It's just that neither of us drinks soft drinks, and you should already know that after so many years of friendship... Berenice, please bring some glasses and that champagne I asked you to put in the freezer when I arrived and which should be very cold by now." Ana finally relaxes and regains her good mood as her friends raise their glasses and wish her "Happy Birthday" in unison.
Translated to english using DeepL
Voltar