The Surprise Party Nobody Knew About

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On a holiday afternoon in March, twenty-five people were crouching in the dark living room of a small house. Ana had been planning this party for weeks. It was Teo's fortieth birthday, and she had baked a three-layer cake, hired a mariachi trio to wait in the kitchen, and made everyone swear to switch off their phones. "He'll be here at four," she whispered. "When you hear the key, nobody move."

At five past four, a key turned in the lock and the door opened slowly. "SURPRISE!" shouted twenty-five voices, the trio struck up a tune, and a boy set off a paper cannon. In the doorway, frozen, with a ladder on his shoulder, stood not Teo but Mr. Gil, the old neighbor from next door. "I only came to return the ladder," he said in a very small voice. "Ana lent it to me last week."

Nobody knew what to say. Somebody switched on the light, and somebody else began to clap, out of sheer politeness. Ana glanced at the clock, then at her phone, and turned pale. Just then, as if it had been waiting for the worst possible moment, the phone began to ring. It was Teo. "Hi, love," he said, cheerfully. "I've just arrived at my mother's. The traffic wasn't bad. Why is there so much noise?"

Ana sat down on the arm of the sofa. Too late, she remembered that Teo had told her three weeks earlier that he would spend this weekend at his mother's. She had even written it in her calendar, and yet she had somehow planned the party for the wrong date. "Nothing, nothing," she said. "The television. Happy birthday, my love." She put the call on speaker before anybody could stop her.

The guests, who had no idea what else to do, sang. They sang to a phone, in three different keys, while the mariachis played along. Four hundred kilometers away, Teo laughed so hard that his mother came in from the kitchen to see what was happening. "I think," he managed to say, "that this is the best surprise I've ever had, and I'm not even there."

Mr. Gil was still standing in the doorway with his ladder, and Ana, feeling guilty, pulled him into the room. Someone put a paper hat on his head, and someone else handed him a plate. "Since the guest of honor is absent," said Ana's sister, cutting the cake, "we'll need a replacement." The old man looked at the cake, at the hat, and at the twenty-five smiling faces.

"Well," said Mr. Gil at last, lowering himself into the best armchair, "I've never been to a party where I knew so little and ate so much. But I'll be happy to blow out the candles, if nobody objects." And he did.