Gray Days

Chapter 19: A Lonely Place

19

Rut.

"If Mom and David aren't home during New Year's Eve which is like most of the time, I usually party with friends or sometimes join the Wyean's to celebrate." We're driving to the mountains and Zoey's basking in the wind and she appears that she's not listening but I continue still. "I think it's time for you to celebrate New Year the tribal way."

"Why celebrate New Year anyway?" she asks, proving she's actually listening.

I shrug. "It's a new year, duh."

"I know but, what about all those other days that aren't January first? Aren't those part of the new year too? Why does it have to January first?" She is now full-on bombarding me and I don't even know the answers to any of her questions. All I know is that tomorrow's new year and tonight is New Year's Eve and I'm going to a party. "Why do we celebrate New Year?"

"I don't know!"

"Would you stop playing with your hair? You're going to get bald." I only realize I'm actually doing it after she said that and I immediately stop it. "That's a really bad habit," she comments.

"You'll still love me when I'm bald anyway," I say and wink at her.

She doesn't like that and makes a face. "Who says I love you?"

"You just did." I turn to her and she shakes her head disapprovingly and doesn't talk to me for the rest of the drive. I don't think she's mad otherwise her silence would be so uncomfortable. She just doesn't want to talk. There's only two ways for this to go: I push her and she actually gets mad like that one time or I let her be and get a kiss later. It's not that hard to choose because I really like kissing her.

We're climbing the mountain and most of the time, Zoey wanders around the place and comes back carrying different kinds of things. For the first time, she brought a pinecone. Then she threw it away. The last time, she brought a walking stick for herself. She's used it ever since. She's not talking to me still. Until this moment when she falls back and when I turn to her, she's looking at the town from almost a two-thousand-foot altitude.

Her ears are little nippy since she gave her beanie to Katherine. So I take the ushanka hat I'm wearing and lay it over her head, plucking the flaps over her ear so they get covered up. She looks over her shoulder to see what I'm doing then turns back and points at the town using the stick. "The town was beautiful from the Mayor's. But it's more beautiful from up here."

"It is," I say, looking at the view, "You know what's else is beautiful?" I turn to her.

"What?" She glances to me.

"You." I give her a smile as she goes speechless as if it's the first time I ever told her that. She's just staring at me, mouth entirely shut with absolutely no words trying to sneak out. I feel like if I'm not going to make a move we won't get a move on so I say, "Next time you're going to give someone your hat, make sure you have a spare," and turn away.

It's not long until Zoey catches up to me and we reach the ridges. Chief Macaulay is a little less rough with Zoey than the first time she's here and they talk for about an hour since we get into the camp. I find the guys carrying firewood to the camp ground so while Zoey's off hanging out with the chief, I might as well give them a hand. There'll be two campfires for tonight's celebration, just like last year and the other year. The first one is to celebrate the end of the year, while the other is to welcome the start of another. And there'll also be two celebrations. For the end of 2019 and for the start of 2020.

We don't have enough time to join both parties and I have to bring Zoey somewhere afterwards so we'll only be here for the first campfire. As we finish stacking up firewood, Zoey comes back with Chief Mac and finally hands her over to me. They look like they had a great time. Zoey's smiling and Chief Mac's voice is friendlier to her than to me when he says, "Enjoy the celebration, Zoey. It's always been our pride. And I would appreciate nothing more than seeing our guest revel in our heritage."