Five Left to Hold the Line

Community Hall on New Year's Eve. Paper decorations, cheap champagne. Ten of us

used to fill this room. Now we're just five. Nobody says the

names. packed and sat beside the rattle and heat. Tada's spinning in

her paper crown. Megan and Negma by the window. Watching snow come down.

Nobody mentions the missing five. We learned just what that silence buys.

If you don't ask where the others went, you don't have to watch the

ten divide. Five of us left to hold the line. Used to be

we'd never miss a night, but ten is just a number, right?