She is not unexpected yet she appears much sooner than the others anticipate. Fifty is just suddenly here, rounder than Thirty or Forty, with silver dusting in her hair, interesting lines on her face. Forty dreads seeing these lines emerge, so she avoids looking too closely at her face. However Fifty wears the lines with an air of pride, as if to say “They are me.”

Ten has been waiting a long time for the others to arrive. She quietly sits on a small rocking chair behind Twenty, Thirty and Forty, patiently waiting, humming and playing with the frayed stuffed Teddy bear she always clings to at times like this – uncomfortable moments watching grownups being, well – grownup.

She likes the looks of Fifty; although she can do without the others. Twenty is O.K. but she seems a little lost. Ten envisions Twenty skipping down an uncertain path searching for people, places or things she can hold onto and call her own. Twenty wears her hair in the Diana Ross smooth glamorous look one month and then becomes an Angela Davis look-alike the next with a huge afro. And finally she returns to the silky Ross style as she steps onto the first rung of the ladder to corporate success. At one time, Twenty could sing all the lines to “The Revolution Will Not be Televised”.

Thirty, well Ten does not have much time for her; probably because Thirty acts as though Ten does not exist, as though Thirty just appeared on the middle rung of the corporate ladder all by herself – immaculate conception of an executive. Thirty has laser-like focus – on success, money, being accepted, on just about anything and anyone who has nothing to do with who she is as a person. Thirty is lost, just like Twenty, although in a different way. But – she has a great career! Not much of a social life, which makes a mess for Forty to deal with.

Forty does deal with it, she has to... Read full text in Perennial Secrets