Birthday Party!

It had been a long day at work. That was to say, every day was a long day at work, but today had simply felt longer. There were no people to prod and poke at his mind, and as much as he loved tending to his plants, he could’ve felt himself going mad. Now he walked back to the ghost town, not dreadfully far from his work. Even if it was, he enjoyed the walk it gave him, a piece of quiet to himself before seeing the others. That wasn’t to say the others annoyed him, of course, simply that it was quite manic with the others around sometimes.

Under his arm he held a fern, a simple spider plant, but he wanted to start bringing some greenery to the ghost town, if only to liven it up a little. No pun intended, he thought to himself with an idle hum. It had been a little over five months since Wolfe had discovered the ghost town. He’d say it was a turn of fate, some sort of mystical meeting, but he entirely hadn’t meant to. Not that he regretted it, of course, but he didn’t believe in fateful meetings. He just ran, and kept running, and for one night, he was happy he did.

Q and Clove treated him much like a father figure, which he didn’t mind. He had, at one point, thought about having kids, but he never looked too much into it. They fulfilled that for him in a way he didn’t fully know he needed. Mutt, well, it was hard to say really — Wolfe wanted to say they treated him much like a chew toy, in the nicest way, but they clearly didn’t see him as a father role. Maybe it was simply because they were older? It didn’t particularly matter to Wolfe, they showed they cared for him, and he cared back. And was that not all that mattered as of right now?

In his thinking, he had hardly realised the fact he was approaching the ghost town. And as he squinted his eyes, he could see the very familiar shape of Clove, pacing around. Suspicious, he thought to himself.

“Clove?” Wolfe yelled, making it sound as non-threatening as he could, “What are you doing out here?”

Clove froze, looking around in slight panic before feigning coolness, “Oh, Wolfe, I didn’t even see you there.”

Wolfe politely walked up to them, tilting his head, “That didn’t answer my question?”

“Well,” Clove paused as they thought, “I was… admiring the grass.”

Wolfe looked at the grass. It was either dead or horribly overgrown, and definitely not a sight to behold. He cocked his eyebrow in confusion, before slowly replying, “Right. Well, I have a new plant for you to admire. And it’s alive. Shall we go and put it up?”

And as Wolfe went to go to one of the nicer houses in the ghost town, he felt Clove grab his sleeve, “Wait!”

Wolfe turned to look at them, and he couldn’t hide the confusion on his face as he did. It was an uncommon sight for him to show many emotions nowadays, “Yes?”

“What’s the, uh, what’s the plant? Can you describe it to me in like, large amounts of detail?”

Very suspicious, he thought to himself before responding, “Well, it’s a Chlorophytum comosum, or more known as a spider plant. It’s a rather simple plant to look after, good for beginners.”

Clove, still grabbing onto his sleeve, nodded intently, so he hesitantly continued, “It’s a species of evergreen perennial flowering plant, of the family Asparagaceae. They can grow quite large, so I thought it was a good start for our plant-based adventures.”

Wolfe could, very easily mind you, tell Clove was looking past Wolfe. Still listening, no doubt, but looking for something, or someone? Before he could figure it out, Clove snapped back to looking in his vague direction.

“That sounds so cool and fun. I promise. Anyway we can go to the house now, come on!”

Before Wolfe could question it, they took off, leaving him no time to ask about the weird behaviour. He heaved a sigh, not angry or upset, simply confused. He worked his way towards the house Clove had ran off to, almost nervous for what he was about to see. He loved his kids, but he could only stomach so many burnt brownies.

As he got closer to the house, he could hear muffled giggling. It was hard to hear, would’ve been impossible if the mask hadn’t slightly enhanced it, which was a blessing and a curse, really. He carefully made his way into the house, the door had just been left open, clearly from Clove. He didn’t mind. Who was going to come knocking, a salesman? He slowly made his way through the house, following the faint giggling and quiet shushes to the rather dilapidated kitchen, taking a breath before walking in.

To his shock, what followed was the noise of cheerful yelling, and a rather colourful, handmade banner that read:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOLFE!

He was confused, very confused. There was Clove, Q and Mutt, cheering for him, a nice little cake sitting on the table which was, clearly, also handmade. He admired it for a second, how it was lopsided and amazingly bad, which made it perfect. And he burst out laughing, he couldn’t help it. The three in front of him stopped cheering as he laughed, not cruelly, but from an unseeable, and genuine joy.

He stopped for just enough time to ask, “Who eavesdropped to find this out?”

They all looked a little awkward until Q put up their hand, to which Wolfe laughed a little more. They couldn’t seem to work it out, and he put his hand up to silently ask for a moment. This was amazing, he loved it, but he had to break it to them at some point.

“I very much appreciate the party, but Q, you must have misheard. It’s not my birthday, it’s my mother’s birthday. It’s a few months until mine, I regret to say.”

The was a bit of silence, before Q spurted out, “Fuck.”

Wolfe finally finished laughing, breathing out one final time before regaining his composure. He pulled his phone from his pocket, flicking through it, “Here, why don’t you say happy birthday to the person who actually deserves it.”

He found her contact easily, starting a call quickly and putting it on speaker. It rang twice.

“Treasach?”

“Mamma, yes, it’s me.”

“Oh, it’s so lovely to hear from you!”

“I know, I have been trying to call more but I have been,” Wolfe paused as he looked at the 3, who were staring intently at him, “Busy.”

“Oh?”

“It’s a very long story, but my,” Wolfe paused again, thinking through his words, “My kids and my friend wanted to say happy birthday to you.”

“Kids?”

“I can explain later, they’re very excited to wish you a happy birthday. Here.”

Wolfe passed his phone to Clove, who hesitantly took it. Wolfe smiled, trying to be reassuring.

“Happy birthday, mum of our dad!” Q yelled, just excited to wish someone a birthday, and soon, Clover did too.

It didn’t take long before they were just talking about everything. Fairly common for his mother, to be honest, and she was probably just excited he had finally got kids. He was excited too. He was sure it was her best birthday gift either, even if it was originally for him. He smiled, and didn’t stop for a while.