New Year's Gone Wrong (Open)

[Abe Milton]

((Takes place January 1st))

It was New Year’s day, and unfortunately for Abe, not a Sabbath, which meant he had no excuse not to be working. He’d offered any staff member who wanted to work double the salary and a party on the house after work for both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s proper, serving customers himself on Christmas day with anyone who had volunteered, and generally this had kept the holidays relatively sane. But some of his servers had been out with, ahem, a sickness, which meant Abe was out on the floor in a relatively crowded restaurant. He could handle this normally. Normally it wasn’t an issue. But last night, the heater in his home had broken, and he’d woken up with his knee in agony. Two painkillers hadn’t helped and had made him foggy besides. So he’d gone to work with cane in hand and trying to remember how to balance a plate using one hand and a cane for support. It had been a while. He’d been feeling, well, better. Shame he’d taken that for granted. He really should start doing those exercises again. But unfortunately, regrets could do nothing for him now. He was just going to have to live with this.

Thankfully, it was slowing down toward the end of the night. That was also good, because Abe’s knee was killing him. He leaned against a wall, fetching a piece of cloth and wiping his forehead.

“Abe.” It was one of the cooks, looking slightly worried. “Could you take this tray? I can’t find the waitresses—”

Abe grimaced. “Of course.” He put the cane under his arm, took the tray, and headed out onto the floor. He heard someone cry “watch out!” but too late, because he hadn’t spotted the water spilled in the walkway. His good leg went out from under him and he and the tray went crashing to the ground. Abe stayed very still, breathing slowly through his mouth, then opened his eyes to a concerned face peering down at him.

“What?” It was snapped. He was too tired for this.

[Joe Honnick]

It was the first of the year which meant the annual Honnick resolutions. As was tradition the Honnick family would go out to dinner and they would share their resolutions and drink a toast and promise to keep each other to their promises. As was also tradition, life would quickly get in the way and these promises were becoming more and more unstable. When Lesedi and Rachel had been little he and Jasmine had worked hard to try to get their daughters to work toward goals and they themselves tried to keep themselves accountable. But when resolutions went from everything to one of their daughters spontaneously declaring veganism (which lasted about a day and a half) to losing weight, getting organized, to being more energy conscious it was a hard thing to keep up with once life got busy again. And yet, year after year they did this.

“Alright, let’s go!” Joe said clapping his hands. He was dressed casually in slacks and a polo, Jasmine in jeans and a blouse, Lesedi had chosen jeans as well and Rachel a kahki skirt. He still couldn’t believe how big his girls were now, it seemed that just yesterday he’d held their tiny bodies in his hands and whispered that he’d always protect them. He herded them all into the car and drove. They’d chosen Honest Abe’s this year, starting the year off trying one of the places they liked but never went to often enough. And since it was the first of the year, no one was working and they could all go out. The Honnick family sat around the table, Joe and Jasmine on one side and Lesedi and Rachel on the other. “Resolutions?” Joe asked getting a smile from Jasmine and a groan from his daughters. “I’ll go first.” He raised his glass. “This year, I will take PUSE to the next level and I will lead by example.” They clinked glasses and drink.

Jasmine went next. “This year, I will start selling my teas and herbal remedies.” They repeated the action of drinking. He was proud of her, she’d been wanted to get back into mixing her herbs and selling them for years. He took her hand and smiled, he believed in her. Rachel followed, This year, I will get into medical school.” Joe smiled broadly, drinking to that gladly. She was smart she could do it. She’d been working as a volunteer at local clinic and she had glowing reviews from doctors she worked with. Finally, his dear Lesedi. She had been through so much these past few years. She cleared her throat and raised her glass. “This year, I will get better. I want to go back to college.” Joe’s mouth dropped open along with everyone else at the table. Instead of drinking immediately Rachel put her drink down and hugged her sister. Joe and Jasmine also rose hugging their oldest daughter tightly. She had come so far. She had been broken beyond repair by that sick and twisted meta human, but now here she was, getting better. Wanting to excel. He was glowing with pride. His daughter the doctor and his daughter the college student.

He was just making his way back to his seat when a loud crash called his attention. He winced, he’d seen the man with the cane hobbling around with trays all night. He couldn’t imagine why they were making his wait tables, it was ridiculous. No one else seemed to move, not even the waitress who’d called for him to watch out. She seemed frozen as everyone else was. Joe moved forward quickly and when the man’s eyes open he all but snarled. Joe raised his hands in a gesture of truce. “Can I help you with anything?” He asked and started to collect the fallen tray. As if that broke the spell a man with a towel came and started clearing up the spilled food and another worker started to gather the pieces that had fallen from the tray. “Are you alright?” Joe asked gently, not looking for another snap. He sympathized, he had busted his knee back in college and his football career with it, it had been aching in the cold, but at least his wasn’t so bad that he needed a cane yet.