[ WP ] Everyone dies on their birthday , but no one knows at which age it will occur .

I gently closed the black bag over the dead man ’ s blue and lifeless face. 
 
 “ Third one like this in a week. ” My colleague Frank commented “ I guess when you get to his age you stop being as careful. I doubt you ’ d get many folks under the age of seventy decide to go swimming on their birthday. Could almost go so far as to call it suicide. ” 
 
 “ Maybe when you get to a certain age you just feel like it ’ s your time. You realise that you can ’ t go on wrapping yourself up in cotton wool each year. ” I replied. 
 
 “ But Bobby ” Frank actually stopped what he was doing to turn and address me `` I mean, we live in a world where on any other day of the year you can do whatever the hell you want, why would you do anything other than stay indoors and sit it out on your birthday? ” 
 
 I could see his point. A certain logic seemed to state that you should lock yourself up in a padded room for twenty four hours each time that special day rolled round, but another school of thought suggested that when it was your time to go it was just your time. So do whatever you want and don ’ t worry about. Same if you were eighteen or eighty. 
 
 Of course the Birthday Hotel incident of 82 seemed to support this theory even if not many other people did. An enterprising businessman in California came up with the seemingly brilliant idea of building the safest environment in the world to ‘ celebrate ’ your birthdays in. A state of the art facility that had been specifically designed, right down to the minutest detail, to ensure that you saw it to the end of your day alive. Two weeks after it opened it ’ s doors for the first time a small tremor, that had little to no effect on the rest of the state, produced a fissure that swallowed the Birthday Hotel whole. Most of the staff had been in an adjacent building for an emergency debrief on a customer who the day before had almost died from swallowing his tongue. The only staff member who ’ d been in the hotel at the time it disappeared into the Earth coincidentally also had their birthday on that day. Unfortunately for them they ’ d already used up their entire holiday allowance for the year and hadn ’ t been allowed to take the day off. 
 
 “ Come on though Bobby! Don ’ t you try and tell me that you don ’ t hide away on your birthday just like everyone else our age. ” Frank lifted the head end of the bag whilst I took the legs. 
 
 “ No you ’ re right ” I lied “ I do.'' 
 
 It was true that like everyone else I took the same day off each year and disappeared for twenty four hours. But unknown to everyone else I spent the day doing exhilarating activities or trying out new things. Last year I went power boating. You see there ’ s something that only my parents, who are now both deceased, ever knew about me. I was rescued from an unstable mother who overdosed whilst I was still in nappies. The authorities couldn ’ t find my official birth certificate and therefore my exact date of birth could never be verified. 
 
 For me any day could be my birthday and equally any day could be my last. And I ’ ll tell you something, hand on my heart, in all honesty, I would ’ t have it any other way.
