LET'S TOAST THE NEW YEAR COMING

 LET’S TOAST TO THE NEW YEAR COMING

The fire crackling under the great white chimney hood, as the bangs of the firecrackers, which people are pulling outside, could be heard even if the musicians were playing___now they were playing a waltz by Johann Strauss____even if everyone was talking, everyone was saying something, which maybe nobody listened to___There were more than thirty people gathered in the great room for the end of year party. There were laughter, and the children were running after each other, shouting challenges : “ I catch you!” “I’ll be there first!” “ I tell it mom!”          Sure by then children should have been in bed already, but their parents hadn’t felt like insisting to send them to bed. After all, this was a very special night.

The branches of the great, high Christmas tree, laden with decorations, glittering with colors lights, wavered by the stamping of the children around the wide room.                                                        The adults were still for the most part seated at the table, all quite drunk,  as well as numb from the big eating.

Midnight was approaching. On the television screen , while  the numbers which marked the minutes and the seconds until the arrival of the new year were running very fast, each of them immediately replaced by the following. With midnight not only the new year would come, but a new century would also begin. The origin of the Golden Pear, a great agro-food company, dated back to over a century earlier. Although at first it was only an almost small family run business, which had grown and harvested pears, delicious pears, which had immediately been a great success on the market.  So the company had enlarged (grown) rapidly, it had started to produce other foods than pears, even if they were all products whose main ingredient was invariably pear ( they were all pear based products). So there were __pears in vitro_which were pears in syrup, a very special syrup , which enhanced  the flavor of the golden pear, a pulpy, creamy, juice pear with a honeyed and, at the same time, sparkling flavor, and in adding the surprise of an almond aftertaste ,and there were pears pies , pear biscuits, pear rice and chocolate pear…..and the Golden Pear even produced dishes prepared for the cooking, meat and fish dishes too, which were prepared with large use of pear…..as the pork loin blended in the pear, as the salmon swimming in a pear water, as the trout topped with pear, as the anchovies in pear sauce, as the artichokes stuffed in pear….and as many others dishes ready for cooking. Every year the Golden Pear launched a new product ( a new specialty) in the market, whether it was sweets or dishes prepared for cooking, it could not miss the pear, and not only the simply aroma of the pear, but the pulp and  also the peel of the pear were present in significant quantities  in all the products of the Golden Pear.  The company was preparing to face the new century, indeed the new millennium, with great momentum and enthusiasm, although more than a hundred old, it felt completely projected towards the future. A great future was awaiting for the Golden Pear, as it could boast a great past and a great present.

Max and Tommy, cousins not yet thirty, were the young offspring designated to lead the company shortly thereafter, when Max’s father and Tommy’s mother would retire. The two young cousins were sitting at the table for the end of the year party, together with the other members of their large family. In addition to their parents, in addition to their brothers and sisters, there were gathered at the long table in the wide room, for the great party in honor of the new millennium, uncles, aunts, great uncles and great aunts, cousins and cousins of their parents, there were their grandfathers and their grandmothers , too, still very lively , despite their advanced age.

There was, sitting at the head of the table, their grandfather Osvaldo, whose grandfather, Adolfo, had founded the Golden Pear over a hundred years earlier.

Grandfather Osvaldo, who was over eighty, had been decisive in choosing who would lead the great company, succeeding his son Peter and his daughter Monika. Although he had other three sons and many grandsons, he had no doubts : they, Max and Tommy, were the more suitable to drive the Golden Pear.

At that great dinner to greet with joy, all together, the year which was going to end and the new year coming, the two young cousins designated for this very important task were seated at opposite side of the long table. Each of them was seated alongside their young wives. Their children, a little boy and two little girls of four and six years, were pawing, running, screaming around the room. Midnight was approaching, there were less than three minutes before the arrival of the new year….how fast the numbers which marked the time on the big black screen were flying by.

Max raised a goblet of wine and sought out the look of Tommy, seated across from him. Also Tommy, looking at his cousin, with an absorbed look, raised a glass of wine and nodded to Max.

“ Darling, why don’t we dance? Are you hearing? They are playing our waltz “ Rosy, Tommy’s wife said. “ No, darling, not now….We’ll dance later” Tommy said absently, looking intently at the glass of wine in his hand. “ Oh, Tommy, but it’s our waltz” Rosy insisted. Tommy doesn’t seem to hear what she is saying.

“ John! Anne! Suzie! On, come here, children….the new year is coming! Soon, children, come near me…oh, children, 2000 is coming!” Grandmother Ada shouted.

It was only a minute to midnight, to the new year. Someone started to say, to tick the seconds, to make the cone backwards of the seconds____minus fifty… minus forty-nine…..____while the running of the numbers on the screen seemed being more and more fast.

The orchestra suddenly had stopped playing and grandfather Osvaldo  turned to the musicians indignantly. Damnation, what was happening? What ways were those? Who had said them to stop playing music? On, that they would immediately start playing again!

Tommy and Max stood up at the same time, exchanging a very brief glance.

“ It was we, Tommy and I, grandfather, who asked the musicians to stop playing “ Max said.

“ We asked for the music to be silent ( we asked for this interruption of music)….excuse us, Grandpa, and excuse us , all of you, because (since) we, Tommy and I, have to communicate the decision we have taken “  At these words suddenly silence fell in the wide room. Even the children stopped cackling, they too began to look, astonished, to Max and Tommy.

Grandfather Osvaldo was looking  frowning at them, moving his gaze from the face of one to the face of the other, while his face was becoming more and more dark, more and more worried.

“ Do you want to be you, Tommy, to tell what we have decided?” Max asked.

“ No, it would be better that you were who talks, as we agreed” Tommy replied.

When he started talking, Max didn’t seem to know where to look, he kept looking from Tommy to the ground and back to Tommy again.

“ Then, dear grandfathers, dear grandmothers, dear parents, to you and to everyone present, here is our decision, mine and of Tommy….Of course we two are very honored to have been appointed(chosen) to succeed the current top executives of our great company….” Max paused for just a moment, as if to catch his breath, or to get courage, looking for Tommy’s gaze, but he continued to stay with his head lowered.

In that moment of silence the countdown of the seconds to midnight came to end. The new year arrived, one could say that the new year broke out in the room, where all who were present stood up and, applauding they shouted : ____WELCOME NEW YEAR!_____WELCOME 2000!____WE ARE IN 2000!_____

“ But Osvaldo, the boys have something to tell us. Let them talk” It was grandma Ada who asked for attention to listen to Max and Tommy.  “ Ehm….now we have entered the new year…and what new year…we came, a few minutes ago, in 2000!” Max began saying. “ Ah, this is an epochal date, and we two have also taken a decision which, yes, we can call epochal….Tommy and I have decided, of course after thanking you for everything you have done for us…..we have decided to leave the Golden Pear to undertake a new business, to carry out our project…oh, a project very in tune with the new millennium that has just started. Tommy, do you want, please, to talk about the enterprise we decided to embark on?”

“ Oh, what I have to hear, at my age!” grandfather Osvaldo cried, in a slurred voice, as his face became congested, red. A thud  was heard, grandfather Osvaldo fell to the ground. “ Cursed wretches! You are killing your grandfather! Damnation!” The screams of the relatives who run next to the grandfather joined those of the grandmother Ada. “ But look at these ungrateful young grandsons! Shame! To hit a poor old man ….like your grandfather, who always supported you…who made so much for you, who trusts you so much that he wanted you be the top leaders of our glorious Golden Pear…..” Among those who were next the grandfather, there were some who tried to revive him, and others who said that an ambulance should be called immediately.

While those who were around him continue to fidget, completely unexpectedly grandfather Osvaldo stood up, taking everyone by surprise, even Max and Tommy who, with a very pale face, petrified, had remained standing at the table, facing each other, when the grandfather fell to the ground.

“ Ah, I am fine, you really don’t have to worry about me” Grandfather Osvaldo reassured all the relatives around him. Even the children, the great grandchildren of Osvaldo, who was their great grandfather, had rushed to him, frightened, when he fell to the ground.

“ Then Max….and Tommy, you told us your decision to leave the Golden Pear , and I almost got a hit….Ah, but since I am still alive and well, I would like to hear you talking about the project you are about to undertake. On, so, please, inform us …I’m curious, I’m looking forward to know what you are planning to do, my dear boys, and I think everything here is as curious as I am” grandfather Osvaldo said, rubbing his hands.

Max and Tommy exchanged a knowing look, as they nodded. Then it was Tommy who spoke.

“ Well, grandfather, of course we are very happy that you’re well….Excuse us, please…..indeed we have to ask you to forgive us, me and Max, for provoking you, albeit involuntarily ,this illness….thank goodness you have recovered immediately. Then, dear grandfather Osvaldo , and you all here present tonight , when the new year, 2000, has just begun, Max and I have decided to embark on a very futuristic enterprise, but we are young and we have decided to dare. We will start a company which will make aerospace aircrafts for people who want to travel in the space, not spaceships for astronauts, but aircrafts to move, to travel in the space and in the extraterrestrial atmosphere for ordinary people, people like we, like you. An area of our company will be in charge of organizing space travels, with travelers who will be able to choose itineraries and destinations”    “ But it’s wonderful! What a fantastic project! “ great-aunt Agnes, who was ninety years old, said, full of enthusiasm.

“ What nice! Also I want to go on a space trip, dad!” John, of six years, son of Max, screamed. “ I want to go on Mars !”

“ Ah, my dear boys….I was not wrong therefore to consider you really smart guys….yeah, you are excellent, you are really two young men of first rate. I like very much your project “ Grandfather Osvaldo complimented. “ I would like , when people will be able to travel in the space like today we travel by plane_____of course in more than a few years___that the tasty products of the Golden Pear could also travel in the space”