Happy New Everything Eve – Daniel 38

For back story go here: Story so far, and maybe this one.]

[Relevant back story links also within text.]

Daisy had heard tell of a wondrous world where a year changed in the space of a second. A strange moment which occurred in the middle of the night, once every 365 days and signified a move from one year to a new one, one world to another. This was a moment she wanted to see, a moment she wanted to live through, a switch over she wanted to experience. A moment her mum had told her about and which her dad was now paying the price for because the power of pester was strong in this one. If Daniel thought he was going to get through to the New Year on his sofa on his own he was very much mistaken.

He would have words with Chrissy, as he usually did. Words which never really got him anywhere, just made him more annoyed and frustrated that before. Words which wouldn’t change the challenge that now faced him. So he would try other words for now.

“The Unicorns of the Sparkle Galaxy will be asleep,” he reasoned. “They know it's more important to have energy ready for the next new day and the new year. They will all be fast asleep recharging their sparkles and dreaming the perfect dreams of unicorns.”

“Oh wow...” said Daisy, slowly taken in.

“And you can dream it too,” said Daniel.

“Tomorrow,” said Daisy decisively. “I’ll dream it tomorrow. Tonight I want to See The New Year In. Like mum said I could. Do we need to keep the door open so it can get in, or is it just magic enough to get in here like Father Christmas and the little baby Jesus?”

“We don’t need to keep the door open,” said Daniel. “Everywhere will change without the door being open.”

“Ooo magic!” said Daisy.

“Yes,” said Daniel, with a little less conviction. “Magic.”

And so the evening began. There were snacks on the coffee table, drinks in plastic cups, chocolate everywhere and krispie cakes on the floor. In order to get themselves through to the most amazing time of the year – or the most amazing time of two years as Daisy insisted – they’d committed themselves to watching the entire Lost Unicorns of the Sparkle Galaxy series. The only difficulty being each episode was under ten minutes and the entire series could be got through in 2 hours flat. Having started at 4pm Daniel was only gradually realising how many times he was going to have to watch the cycle through before they got to Big Ben’s chimes. (“Who is Big Ben and why do we listen to him, daddy? Does he live in the moon?”)

If Daniel was hoping the soporific value of repeated Sparkle episodes might pave a way to a calm evening of reflection he was sadly mistaken. His daughter revealed a true talent for keeping herself awake, and cunning alongside this too. She took a break from the Sparkle repeats to get her dad to play three different Sparkle themed games. Two of these had been bought for her by Chrissy’s side of the family and one of them even included the need to scream SPARKLEDOM! at the top of your voice, a demand that might ensure the neighbours would get no sleep this evening, let alone any of the players.

The third Sparkle game had been invented by Daisy herself, or at least Daniel assumed this was the case, if only because he couldn’t imagine anyone else coming up with this series of actions, sayings and consequences, and certainly couldn’t imagine anyone having the impulse or piece of mind to write them all down. It was an exhausting game, but thankfully Daisy knew all the rules and could repeat them over and over whenever Daniel lost the thread.

Daniel made himself some strong coffee mid-evening to maintain his role as the responsible adult. He was certain he’d dropped off for a few minutes during the third cycle of the Kingdom saga, but there again his mind was so scrambled by that point there was really no telling.

Ultimately, of course, neither of them actually witnessed the magical moment when one year became another. When 2020 fizzled out of existence around the house, inside, outside and up towards the brightly sparkling stars. The New Year, 2021, full of already compromised promise, settled in around them and began by loading the outside world, the leaves, the grass, puddles and pavements with a silvery crisp sheen. The sparkles would be there waiting for them when they woke up, when they opened the curtains to see the new daylight, the new dawn, the longer days and maybe the better days. But for now both Daniel and Daisy slept, crashed out on the sofa with the Sparkle Galaxy still being saved by half a dozen determined unicorns.