Day 179 - Gifts

 GIFTS

Prompt - Gifts : Write about a gift you have given or received

It was my birthday last month.  Fifty four, thanks for asking, and no I don't really look it, do I?  

In the two months running up to the day there was the usual danceathon at home.  My wife would ask me what I wanted, I'd say I didn't really have anything in mind, she'd say I must have, I'd say I really didn't.  And repeat.  And repeat.  One two three, one two three.  I was being honest.  There wasn't anything I could think that I needed, and if wanted stuff I just bought it anyway.  So what was the point?

"I've got to get you something, it's your birthday."

"I know, but you really don't.  Or just get me a bar of chocolate.  You can surprise me with what type."

"You never eat chocolate."

"I would if you gave me one."

"No, that's not enough, I need to get you something you need."

"But I don't need anything.  Just you being with me."

She knows the rules of the game too well, and wasn't about to be thrown by my predictable feint.

"No you have to have something, something nice, something you'll want.  Or maybe you think you don't need to buy anything for my birthday?"

She's good, isn't she?  Predictable right enough, but still good.  It's all in the timing.  She had me on the defensive.

"Of course I wouldn't do that, but..."  I didn't get to knock back my response.

"Then you can see how I've got to get you something, can't you?  This IS a marriage of equals, isn't it?"

I knew when to retreat.

"OK, OK, but I still don't have any ideas what you could get me."

"Then we'll have to go and look for something, won't we?"  There is no answer to this.

And so I went through two Saturdays of 'shopping', a process which means going into shops at random, then wandering vaguely around each in the hope something will jump off a rack and shout "me, me me".  Even IKEA had become a more attractive option.  

It was getting late, we were in some clothes place or other, and I picked up a green jacket.  Just to show interest.

"Oh, now that's nice.  Well maybe not the colour.  But try it on anyway."  I complied.  "I was right, fits perfectly, but the colour isn't you.  What else have they got?"  She brusquely assaulted the rails, looking at alternatives, while I put the green one back.  What was my colour then?  You'd think I'd know by now.  "Now try this one."  She handed me a jacket that was... green.  

"I thought green wasn't my colour?"

"Well not THAT green, obviously," she said like I was about ten, "and the blue's so boring, I'm not going to be seen with you in that brown and the red is a bit too Portillo for you, you couldn't really pull it off like he does.  Anyway, this is less green and more aqua, not a green green, more a blue green."  I pulled on the 'aqua'.  "Yes, yes, that's the one.  What do you think?"

I thought that I'd like to get home and open a Zinfandel, but I said "Yes, I see what you mean, it is me, isn't it?"  Maybe it was, I no longer had much idea who me might be.

"And would you like it for your birthday?"  There was only one correct answer.  And that's how we chose my birthday present.

It's her birthday next month.  I asked what she'd like me to get, was there anything she needed or had seen that she wanted?  

"Surprise me."