January 1st, 2008

She hung the calendar gently on the wall, hoping the tack didn't fall again. The last time that happened, it fell behind the TV and the dog found it before she did. Thankfully, she caught him and removed it from his mouth before he became a living cork board.

The calendar stayed attached to the wall, displaying a picture of Japanese flowers and the month of January. She flipped through the pages, looking at the birthdays she scribbled in a few days earlier. When she got to February, she froze. There it was, his birthday, written neatly and ending with an exclamation mark. She wrote it in permanent marker before realizing that they wouldn't always be permanent. Lowering the pages, she picked up last years' calendar, which was still lingering in the trash can. Flipping through those months, she saw their relationship through words. Visits written down, anniversaries, vacations. She placed the calendar back in the trash can and looked down at her bed that will now hold only her.

"Happy New Year," she mumbled as the tears started falling down her cheeks again.