With July 4th coming up, Amy was depressed. July 4th had always been her favorite day of the year but this year it had been cancelled.

When the people started to protest, The-One-In-Charge said, "Too late, I’ve already had the date removed from the calendar and I have decided to have two birthdays so the year still has three hundred and sixty-five days. I will expect two parties, two cakes and two sets of presents." And with that he went inside, closed the door and refused to discuss the matter again.

The town was very subdued on the day of not the 4th of July. There were no parades, or picnics or laughter, just silence.

As darkness fell, Amy heard a tremendous bang and rushed outside to see what had happened. All the rest of the town was in the street too heading toward the park. From overhead came another loud bang and a shower of fiery color lit up the sky. Fireworks!

The crowd laughed and cheered and applauded, for you see, you can take the 4th of July out of the calendar but you will never take it out of the hearts of the people.

© 2007 Lonnie Rumney. Original for CCF  (Rumney grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF  may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).