What I Would Do

For my sister A on her birthday:

• Make breakfast for Z and his friend who stayed over.
  
• Wash my hair.
  
• Take Z to his swimming lesson.
• Pick up the car with its four new tyres.
• Catch a train to Melbourne.
  
• Have a meeting about my next contract.
• Kiss the birthday girl on both cheeks.
• Eat party food in her honour.
• Laugh with my nieces and mum and two of my sisters and play that game where you write a sentence and fold the page over, then write a word for the next person to start their sentence, then read it all out at the end. One of the sentences I wrote was about having to eat lunch before birthday cake. I was so full after my sandwiches though, that I had no more room for cake.
• See a vampire movie.
• Stand at the train station wishing I had taken a slice of birthday cake so I wouldn't have to buy a vending machine muesli bar.
• Sit next to a man reading a book about how to stop smoking, while I think about sisters and aging and travel and making homes, while I make my way home on the train.