**Birthday Party in the Barrow** (May, 2005)

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Hilde woke up with a start at her accustomed hour. Looking around her, she saw that there were many bodies laying scattered about on the cold stone and some in comfy chairs. With a sudden sense of panic she checked her clothes and touched her hair. No, not a thin white gown and circlet, but she wore the same jeans and sweater as yesterday.

In her private fog, Hilde dug around in her bag for her Nexium. "We’ll be needing this," she whispered to Codijune who had raised her head from Ealasaide knee. Hilde’s stomach was on fire. Knowing that Ealasaide would be asleep, and wouldn’t be up for chatting just yet, she got up to look for a glass of water, or cup of tea or whatever to take her medicine with, and hopefully some sort of bland bread.

Finding her way to the tidied display of food, she saw some macaroons along side chips and glowing red salsa. Maybe just a little, she thought, debating with herself. How she loved good food!

With a plate heaped with cold salmon, chips and salsa as well as a goodly amount of macaroons, and a hot cup of tea. Hilde sat back down and carefully wrapped a macaroon in a napkin, slipping it in her bag for her daughter. Retrieving a CD player and shabby paperback copy of The Two Towers. She slipped a copy of Going for the One in the player and put her headphones on, throwing Codijune a chip before cracking open the book. Good food, good music, good book and good company. What more could she want. They'd have to peel her the ceiling soon!