The year´s bombastic finale

Nellie exchanged glances with Liam. “And before the New Year begins… we now solemnly renew our vow: We will never put yeast over friendship again.”

The candles were lit, the mulled wine filled the room with its spicy aroma, the oven spread its heat throughout the entire room. Nellie led Liam through the kitchen, over the carpet, into the living room and back again in a wild attempt at a Tango. They were hard pressed to maintain their serious expressions under the amused look of Ann who was sitting on the couch, cuddled into her favorite blanket. It was New Year´s Eve and instead of having the fantastic year everyone envisioned, they had been stuck in their apartment for most of it. Ann rested her chin on her arms and abandoned her forced critical look for a more thoughtful expression. The apartment was warm and cozy. Funny how her entire world suddenly seemed to have imploded and now only comprised the eighty square meters, a handful of rooms on the second floor. She and her flat mates, who were now attempting a two-man line dance, had been through all the stages of confinement. They had developed new rituals, like the Friday cocktail hour, the Sunday baking afternoon, the 3pm tea, the Thursday food night; they had watched countless shows together, tried at least four new indoor sports, and painted their first aquarelle over a bottle of red wine facilitating the taking on of artistic airs. Anyways, this had been the first two months, when everything was still fun. But Nellie and Liam had suddenly started to implement not only a Baking Sunday but also started baking randomly on Wednesdays, or Monday nights. So far, Ann could not have complained about it, but slowly she had been getting tired of trying more and more cakes. Nellie, who was pretty competitive, challenged Liam to more and more complicated bakes until Ann had one Tuesday morning entered the kitchen and found it transformed into a battle scene. Flour on the floor, on the counter, on the table, on the couch, on the cat; Dough on the windows and the handle of the fridge; Liam and Nellie on the floor wrestling over the last teaspoon of dry yeast which – admittedly – had been hard to get at the local supermarket. All this was accompanied by the shrill and indignant sound of the fire alarm piercing Ann´s ears. She had jumped over to the oven, turned it off, and removed the blackened mass inside the baking tin from it. She had turned off the fire alarms and used the newly acquired silence to yell at her two flat mates and best friends in order to reestablish their mental soundness. As if from a delirium, Liam had gotten up, gazed around him and taken in the chaos with widely opened eyes. He had blushed and held out a hand to Nellie. Without anything more to say, Ann had turned around on her heels and gone back to her room, making sure to closing her door with a loud pang.

When she had returned from her isolation two hours later the kitchen and the living room had been spotlessly clean, while Liam and Nellie were sitting on the couch with a tea. They had apologized profusely to Ann who had found this slightly embarrassing and had waved it aside. Ten minutes later they all had been laughing about it.

Ann smiled. After this fit of madness, the friends had returned to their normal life and had spent a great time together (especially after Ann had made them promised never to fight over baking again). Ann awoke from her reverie. Liam and Nellie were gone. She stood up and wanted to check the other rooms, when suddenly the lights went off. Confused, Ann stopped and groped for her phone on the couch table. Before she could find it, a light appeared from the hall. It was Nellie and Liam who entered the living room with a board on which a gigantic ball, like a cannon ball, was sitting. Sparklers were illuminating the scene and freely dispersing yellow sparks over the cannon ball. Nellie and Liam, whom Ann could just make out, were smiling broadly. They stopped in front of the couch and carefully put the board down onto the couch table. They giggled. Liam cleared his throat. “We proudly present the bombastic finale of this year… A dessert bombe.” Nellie burst out laughing. “This… is edible?!” Ann asked incredulously. Both nodded smiling. “It consists of about six different things… mousses, jellies, sponges. And…” Nellie smiled ruefully. “We made it together. To apologize to you, Ann. Thank you for stopping us at the climax of our madness.” She exchanged glances with Liam. “And before the New Year begins… we now solemnly renew our vow: We will never put yeast over friendship again.” Ann laughed, Liam laughed and Nellie laughed, before they tried the dessert. “It is delicious! Although, through all this baking frenzy I must have gained five pounds…” complained Ann. “Well, let´s start running next year. I have seen a wonderful planner that makes you increase …” – “Oh Shut up, Nellie!” yelled a terrified Ann. Liam and Nellie could not stop laughing.

The three friends had a wonderful New Year´s Eve celebration. They called friends, listened to music, danced through the house. A couple of minutes before midnight they went outside to watch the fireworks. They could hear their neighbors counting down the minutes until the New Year would begin. Nellie opened another pack of sparklers. When everybody was equipped with a sparkler and a glass of prosecco, they stood still. Listening to the voices all around them which they could hear but whose speakers they could not see because it was dark and they were standing at some distance. Ten seconds remaining. Ann lighted the sparklers and with a happy uproar midnight arrived. The three friends were observing the fireworks in the distance. When the last sparkler died down, they put their arms around each other gazing at the sky, wonderfully blue and occasionally lightened up by colorful bright lights. “Happy New Year.” Ann said quietly and squeezed Liam´s shoulder and then Nellie´s.