📸 Photo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

In the time it had taken for me to walk down the stairs, take a shower and then return to my room, Yasheeda had completely transformed the entire space. She had put all my clothes away, made my bed, cleaned and tidied everything and moved all my furniture around to new positions. The bed was now up against the opposite wall, the table was in the centre of the room, the posters had been swapped over, and there were streamers and decorations dangling from the roof. It was no wonder I hadn't recognised my own room.

On top of that, she had managed to have all my friends arrive without me so much as suspecting. She could hardly speak Spanish, so I don't know how she had organised for the guests to be there exactly on time, or how she had known where to contact Sylvia. But she had.

'So. Do you like it?' Yasheeda asked, pointing at the new furniture arrangement. However, I still couldn't answer. I was speechless. Luckily, Ricardo came to my rescue.

'Well. Come on, Thomas. What do you think of your new décor?' he demanded, doing his gay interior designer act again.

Everyone laughed, but my eyes filled with tears. I didn't know what to say. No one had ever done anything like this for me before. Whenever I'd had a party on the outside, I'd had to buy the cake, invite the guests and do all the organising. But here I was, in a prison on the other side of the world where I barely knew anyone, the least likely place for anyone to celebrate my birthday, and Yasheeda had done all this for me.

'Happy birthday, Tommy,' she said when she had finished lighting all the candles, kissing me again.

'But . . . but how did you know?' I finally managed to stammer. No one in the prison knew.

'Oh, come on! Where's your memory gone, Mr Scorpio?' she teased. Then I remembered the conversation we had had about star signs on the night we'd met. 'That's right. Now you remember?' she said, seeing the recognition register in my eyes.

'Now, blow out the candles and make a wish,' urged Sylvia. 'And don't tell anyone, or it won't come true.'

I did as I was told and made a wish. Then they made me cut the cake. When the knife came out with crumbs on it, I had to kiss the prettiest girl in the room. I stood up and went around to give Sylvia a big kiss. Her pale cheeks turned bright red. The other guests thought this was hilarious.