new year's eve

The whole family walks down the road towards the beach. No one's quite sure if this is the beginning of the twenty first century, or if that took place a year ago in London. The night's balmy. People are eating big steaks on Arocena, just like any other year. A century ago you could only get here by horse and buggy. The beach still has that wildness to it. Sand dunes slide away to the East. The sea, which is also a river, sparkles. A few days ago, on Christmas Eve, when the kids were squabbling over who got what present, a clock stopped. Now, in the streetlit dark, all's peaceful. We bathe in the warm night air. The waves usher us over the threshold.