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A quote: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin
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Their first New Year’s, he tossed pebbles at her window until she leaned out, shushing him not to wake her parents. He smiled, tossing her a small velvet bag with her favorite chocolates.
Through the years, the bag remained though it was now their own home and it was children, not parents they didn’t want to wake. Inside,sometimes it was tickets to a favorite show, pearl earrings, or reservations for a cruise.
This New Year’s he found himself outside once again. No one to wake this time, he laid the velvet bag on her marker. He smiled. Soon, darling.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
Cameron says: The two men sat across each other at the table, undisturbed by the crowd in the ballroom.
“That car bomb was not very polite,” the first man said.
“No but you weren’t the target. The man with the knife was mine though.”
“He put up a good fight,” the man said as he took a sip.
“Still can’t believe you missed me with that rifle shot last year.”
“Those kids were in the way. We have rules you know.”
The fireworks began and they toasted each other.
“Happy New Year’s, old friend.”
“Happy New Year. Maybe we’ll succeed this time.”
The raindrops fell through the canopy of redwood needles, dampening Mikhael Yehuda’s jacket. Even after all these months, familiarity could not diminish his awe at these trees which sheltered and hid the redoubt of Sparta Point.
Today was the end of the secular year, and tonight Spartan would celebrate the New Year as he had growing up in the old Soviet Union — a celebration Mikhael was also familiar with, since his own ancestors had left that unlamented country after a long struggle as refuseniks, and had not abandoned that one tradition even as they embraced a new homeland where the Jewish holidays were the primary civil holidays.
Mikhael recalled his father talking about being a child watching the television transmission of the famous clock on the Kremlin tower in Moscow as it struck the midnight hour, although it would be 2AM where they’d lived in western Siberia. In the US, everybody tuned in to the broadcast of the ball dropping in Times Square, although it would only be 9PM here in California. Apparently some of the TV stations around here rebroadcast it at midnight Pacific Time, although others chose to broadcast regional celebrations, including the Disneyland orange in Anaheim (apparently echoing the one at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida) and the diamond-shaped lamp in Sacramento, which was always started by the governor.
Right now Mikhael was considering what his New Year’s resolutions would be. It was an American custom, although it appeared to be observed as much in the breach as anything. But there were enough Americans among Spartan’s Own that it was a thing here.
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