A Birthday Kidnapping
Good friends are hard to find. Some people go through their whole lives without any or maybe just a few. And some people have a group of friends the rest of us would kill to have. To say I’m envious of Sagrario’s group of friends is an understatement. I had already heard lots about them and some of their antics before but I finally got a chance to see them in action.
One evening a few days before my trip to Madrid, Sagrario was in Burriana tending to her father while Ewa and I were just hanging out at home. All of a sudden the door buzzer rang, something we usually ignore unless we know there is a package being delivered or someone is coming to pick up avocados (long story). We decided to answer it: the people downstairs claimed to be Sagrario’s friends and even though we were very suspicious we figured there were two of us, we would see how it plays out. In the time that it took those “friends” to climb up to the third floor, Ewa managed to text Sagrario asking if she knew what was going on. When we opened the door to the visitors, they quickly introduced themselves as Vicente and Rosa and gave us plenty of information they could only have known if they were truly her friends so we relaxed and asked why there were visiting when they knew their friend was away.
It turned out that they were trying to set up a surprise for Sagrario on her birthday which was coming up the following week. They had come to ask us for help with getting her back to Valencia on her birthday, that is a day earlier than she was supposed to, because the whole group wanted to celebrate with her. There were some complications in play, mainly due to the fact that Sagrario’s schedule with her father was dependent on her sister’s availability, something I had known about because she had told me she probably couldn’t come back to Valencia in time for her birthday since her sister couldn’t change her dates or some such. Little did she know but her friends had already arranged everything with the sister so Sagrario could, in fact, return earlier, all we needed was an excuse for her to do so. After all, there was supposed to be a surprise. Vicente and Rosa thought that maybe we could call her and get her home by staging some kind of emergency but, knowing how bad a liar I am, I suggested we let her know we got her a birthday present: a theatre ticket to a play that could only be on that Thursday so could she come home a little earlier and by 6pm, pretty please. Everyone loved the idea since we really were going to get her a ticket except for the Sunday instead, so very little lying was required. Plan made, contact information exchanged, conspiratorial elbows bumped, Sagrario’s birthday was going to happen. Except we, Ewa and I, still had no clue what was actually going on. Our part was to get her home, the rest was up to her friends.
As the plotting was happening, however, Sagrario was texting me and Ewa wondering what the heck was going on and telling us we shouldn’t open the door to anyone. To calm her down we told her it was some kids buzzing buzzers all up and down the street as practical jokes and she seemed to buy it. Or so we hoped. Fast forward to B-Day. I came back from Madrid the night before, Sagrario was already back too, surprising Ewa by showing up even earlier than originally anticipated. I have a suspicion she came back early because she was expecting something: the woman knows her friends. She is also the one in the group who always organizes events so surprising her isn’t easy, she knows all the tricks. Our job was to get her to the theatre, just around the corner, as close to 6:30 as possible. As soon as we were getting ready to leave, I started secretly notifying Rosa and the gang on our progress. But first, we had to stop for pictures, of course.
The theatre is literally a block away so it didn’t take us long to get there. As I was frantically trying to steer Sagrario away from actually entering the venue, I didn’t have time to look around to see the gang which means, ultimately, I was as surprised as she was when all of a sudden some men came out of nowhere, covered her eyes, and whisked her away, all the while people around us were looking on in stunned silence (what’s up with that anyway?) as we were all giggling uncontrollably. The fact that nobody asked what was going on was a little disconcerting though I did my best trying to laugh the whole situation off and making it look like I knew what was going on (I didn’t), just to allay any fears and stop folks from calling the cops. As this video shows, it was silly and I’m still a really bad videographer.
The kidnapping continued as we reached a hidden wheelchair in which Sagrario was to make the rest of the journey, tied and blindfolded, unaware of the destination. Hugo, the wheelchair pusher, made sure she couldn’t figure out where we were going by deliberately crashing into things, making wild turns, entering buildings (the Carmen Centro de Cultura being one of them), sticking her up against a wall and leaving her there for a few minutes while the rest of us were practically peeing our pants laughing, and just generally being silly.
Eventually we made our way down to Jardins del Turia and the location of the birthday party. I know you’re probably asking how we could get away with having a group of people celebrate a birthday and at a public park at that … well, we did maintain social distancing protocols throughout, we wore masks, and generally behaved well. Plus it was getting dark and someone was always on the lookout for the popo … once in a while it is necessary to live on the edge for the sake of your friends. We really did have fun, and I know for sure Sagrario had a blast, even if she expected something to happen but, ultimately, she did not figure it out so the surprise was still a surprise and all her friends felt like they finally got her back for all the crazy things she always plans for them. Turn around is fair play, as they say.
I got to meet the other members of the gang, all of them very sweet, and both Ewa and I felt very appreciative that they included us in the festivities. Afterwards, we dispersed and a small group of us walked back home to have more cake. What a way to spend a special day. Happy Birthday, Sagrario, you are blessed with an amazing group of friends and I’m very envious. (That’s not to say my friends aren’t amazing … they’re just far away.)
