December 31, 2021 - Reykjavik, Iceland

“Are you really going to do it?” Jae-Young asked her anxiously. He was fidgeting with the ring on his finger.

“Are we really going to talk about this again? Yes.” Ella said. She understood his concern, but part of her wanted to tell him he gave up that right to be possessive when they had broken up. But she knew that was unfair and he was just concerned.

“I’ll just apply and say I am tired of graduate incomes and the worried about tenure opportunities after. It will totally be reasonable since universities treat grad students like crap. Anyway, I have to go. The security line won’t get any shorter.”

Jae-Young grabbed both her hands in his. “Be careful. I wish… I wish I could go back with you. But I need this.”

His hands felt warm and she flushed a bit. “I know. And I wish it could be different. But you have seen the news. The world is going crazy and somehow I have some sort of role to play.” She pushed forward into a hug, “Get your head on straight, you tall weirdo.”

He hugged her back tightly and then eventually they disengaged. Ella hoisted her backpack on and backed to the stanchions that marked the security line.

Jae-Young watched her go and queue and when she rounded the corner turned around and walked away.

The plan landed in JFK and Ella took a moment outside to take off her mask and get some fresh air. Her mother and father were there to pick her up which she was grateful for even though she made them wait while the rapid test did its thing.

Out of an abundance of caution, she kept her mask on as they drove her home, window slightly down, and she used her phone to make an appointment for a PCR test later that day.

She had spent the flight thinking about magic and physics and math. She systematically pretended to ignore but actually listened to the inflight news strange happenings around the world, the doomsayers and odd prophetic cults that had been springing up, the talking heads going on about Revelations and Ragnorak. Rumors of mysterious sightings, odd events, places appearing and disappearing, etc. Even photos of what people called the lost city of Atlantis had surfaced, but planes and other boats had seen nothing. The news ascribed these things to New Year’s hysteria.

So when she got home, she took a quick shower and fell asleep.

She woke up with reflected sun from the snow lighting up her room.

The clock said 11:15 am with the alarm on her phone chiming. Time to go get her test. Thirteen hours until the New Year.

She got dressed and headed over to Duane Reade to get the swab done. Then back home to her room quarantine and a sandwich her mom had made her.

It was twelve hours until rhe New Year, and she had planned on spending it in quarantine with Jae-Young. Instead she was stuck alone in her room.

Charlie had texted her an entire stream of consciousness while Ella had been on the flight back which Ella had ignored. But they hopped onto a quick videochat before Charlie had to get ready for the “some stupid party her parents were making her go to”. Charlie said her Christmas had been all a bad trip and she didn’t remember too much — but her parents refused to talk about it at all — so it must have been bad.

Jade and Craig were apparently still skiing up in New Hampshire and snowed in. They were all drinking and alternating between sitting around a picturesque fireplace and running out in the cold to the hot tub on the deck.

Ella was even bored enough to consider texting Donna but soon thought better of it. She was probably tasing herself while making sure no expression made it to her face. Or maybe she just used botox.

She sat down and fixed the physics model she had been working on and fired off the files to Professor Fedoriw. He emailed her back immediately to say she shouldn’t be working on New Years Eve.

Eight and a half hours to go.

Her brother knocked on the door and then called through it, “Hey dummy. Glad your back home. You barely called while you were in Iceland. Too much fun with JY?”

Eesha tried not to react to much to the mention of Jae-Young, “Hi Harry. We were somewhere with terrible internet. And…” Just say it she admonished herself, “And Jae-Young and I broke up.”

“Damn.” was all Harish said.

“Go to your room and video chat me. Talking through the door sucks.”

Soon they were facing one another over video chat. Eesha creatively modifying a few details as to why Jae-Young had stayed.

“So you are kind of stuck in your room ‘til the test results come back?”

“Yep. Probably being over cautious but you know how it is. Mom already has had to spend so much quarantined from seeing patients, I didn’t want to take the risk. Plus test results will be tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Sucks for New Years, huh?”

And there it was.

“You want to borrow my Xbox? Just got some new sick games.”

“Nah. I’m good.” The conversation ended as Harish got ready to go to a party of his own.

Ella looked at the clock. Eight hours left until New Years. Time was crawling. She was just felt bored and anxious and alone.

She sent a text down asking for a snack, and her mother brought up a tray. A note under a flute of champagne was on the tray in her mothers handwriting.

An early pick me up before the New Year. Stop moping. Whether it is the breakup or the quarantine, I expect to hear loud music, or you talking to your friend, or you at least watching those terrible breakup movies and asking for junk food.

Well her mother was always straight to the point. Eesha regarded the tray, a glass of champagne, a scoop of some random gourmet ice cream with a mint leaf on top as if it was a restaurant, and a small tumbler of probably Jonnie Walker Blue which was her moms usual drink. And a shot of? Eesha sniffed and recoiled. Was that… Goldschlager? Why did her mom have Goldschlager?

She wasn’t even trying to be subtle. Make your choice: celebrate, wallow, chill, or wallow, again? Well, maybe the message was not quite as clear as her mother had thought. Or maybe Eesha was missing a deeper message.

Well Eesha was not really in the mood for any of her mother’s barbs. She downed both shots, poured the champagne over the ice cream and dug in.

She could smell her father cooking dinner. It smelled like butter chicken. She could also hear, through the walls, the distant sound of her mom telling her dad how to cook. She smiled a bit, her father was the better cook for pretty much all types of cuisine, Indian included. But her mother’s equanimity did not quite extend so far as to her native cuisine. The usual was for her mom to offer a continuous stream of suggestions and for her dad to entirely ignore them.

Something slid under the gap of the door. Her brother called through the door, “Heading out to pre-party. Small gift for you.”

Ella looked and saw a small, thin package. When she unwrapped it, she saw a small row of blunts. Harish was being thoughtful in his own way.

Then it was time to watch some movies and settle in.