Nine Years Younger

Prompt: Today is your birthday and when you get to the party, you realize you're nine years younger than you thought you were. What happened and how did you get that extra time?
Word Count: 384

Life is weird. Today, I’m 63 years old or at least that’s how old I thought I would be when I got up this morning and dressed for my birthday party. However, when I arrived at the Mandalay Bay and found the conference room where my brother booked the party, there were only 54 candles on the cake.

“Mel,” I yelled at him across the room and he came running.

“What’s up, Sis?”

“There aren’t enough candles on that cake, Little Brother; I’m 63 today and not 54.”

“No, your 54 years old today,” he shook his head and smiled, “if you don’t believe me, look at your birth certificate. It’s right there by the cake.”

I picked up my birth certificate and looked at it. The year was nine years earlier then when I thought I was born. “I don’t understand, it says here I was born in 1955. I thought I was born in 1946!”

“You’ve been under a lot of stress lately, Sis, and stress has an affect on a person’s memory.”

“Mary,” a voice came from behind me. I turned around and my best friend from high school hugged me.

“It’s nice to see you again, Candy.”

“Could we talk privately?”

“Sure, Candy,” I turned back around to Mel, but he was on his way across the room again. “What is it, Old Friend?” I gave Candy another hug.

“How do you like your birthday present?” Her eyes were shining with joy, but I didn’t remember receiving anything from Candy. “My birthday present from you, Candy, I don’t remember…”

“You like being nine years younger, don’t you?”

“Yes, but how’d you…”

“I have the power to change the date of a person’s conception by nine years, which allows me the ability to change the date of their birth as well.”

“Don’t you have to pay a price?”

“I do, Mary, but in this case it’s worth it. You were the only person in high school that didn’t make my life miserable. If it weren’t for you, I would have dropped out and became a hooker like my mother. Because of you, I graduated from high school and went on to college. This is just my way of saying thank you to an old friend.”

Candy hugged me again and disappeared.