Sarah Simpson's Rules for Living by Rebecca Rupp Page A

here for dinner, which was pot roast and potato pancakes. Most people have ham at New Year’s, but we don’t because I won’t eat pigs because of Piglet. Piglet is my favorite
Pooh
character. Jonah eats pigs, but not around me.
    Jonah brought a bottle of champagne for him and Sally and a bottle of sparkling cider for me and George. Then he proposed toasts.
    THINGS WE TOASTED
    1. Good friends.
    2. The future.
    3. The Revolution.
    4. Bears.
    â€œWhat Revolution?” I said, and Jonah said that the Revolution is when the good people take over the world and everybody uses solar power and eats organic vegetables.
    After dinner we went for a walk in the snow. The snow was coming down in fat fluffy flakes like the snow in a snow globe. If you looked straight up into the snow, you could imagine that everything was upside down and you were falling into the sky.
    George went running ahead with his bear and his stupid floppy boots, trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue, and Jonah took Sally’s hand and tucked it through his arm. Sally can say he’s just a friend all she wants, but I know better.
    Then they started talking about their New Year’s resolutions. Sally’s is the same every year: “Simplify, simplify.” That’s a quote from Henry David Thoreau. Sally thinks that life is too cluttered and needs to be pared down. I can think of things to pare down too, but mine are not the same as Sally’s.
    George’s resolution is to grow enough so that he can ride the Mountain of Death roller coaster next summer at the Pelham Fair. Short little kids are not allowed on the Mountain of Death roller coaster. George is five and small for his age. Jonah asked me what my resolutions were and I said I didn’t know.
    Jonah has not made any resolutions yet either, but I could think of some.
    RESOLUTIONS FOR JONAH
    1. Lose 25 pounds.
    2. Sell the van.
    3. Throw out that shirt with the sea horses on it.
    4. Quit singing “We Shall Overcome.”
    5. Shave.
    I just looked up
resolution
in the dictionary that I got for Christmas from my aunt Elaine. Aunt Elaine always gives improving presents, like wool socks and yoga mats.
    resolution
(n.) 1. A resolute temper; boldness and firmness of purpose. 2. An intention.
    MY RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR
    1. Get rid of Kim.
    2. Get rid of Jonah.
    3. Dye my hair.
    4. Change my name and move to Australia.

JANUARY 2
Just barely
    It is almost one o’clock in the morning, but I can’t get to sleep. Thoughts keep going around in my head.
    New Year’s Day is the anniversary of the day my whole life changed. Last year this was the day my father left. Before he went, we had a talk and he told me all about how married people sometimes grow in different directions and about meeting Kim and realizing that she was his soul mate and how the new year is a time for new beginnings.
    â€œA new beginning for all of us, pumpkin,” he said. But I don’t see how it was a new beginning for Sally and me. I think if he really loved me, he would have stayed home.
    Also I hate it when he calls me pumpkin.
    Andrea says that Kim is a calculating bimbo, but Sally says no and that anyway the divorce was her fault too, because she and my father got married too young and they turned out not to have much in common, except me.
    I don’t see that Sally has much in common with Jonah either.
    Sally rides a bicycle and likes classical music.
    Jonah just sits. He likes sappy folk songs.
    Last year at this time everything was normal and now everything has fallen apart. I read once that the universe started with an explosion and that ever since all the stars and galaxies have been speeding off into space, moving away from each other as fast as they can. Nobody knows whether the stars will keep moving away from each other forever or whether someday they’ll all start moving backward and come back together again.
    In my opinion, once something falls apart, it never