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“You knohat else I think this tree needs?” Paul asked

“What?”

“Tinsel Lots of tinsel”

Happy New Year

To ress They block our will, interfere with our al, Pennsylvania, in a quiet region of dense spruce forest, lies a little-known three-hway that has hardly seen a tire since 1968 The road heads toward the face of Laurel Hill and stops short at a stone arch with a rusted overhang, its opening blocked by a white corrugated metal door partially obscured by a massive pile of road salt There is little sound but the distant rushing of the traffic fro the portal in time

This is the Laurel Hill Tunnel, a reinal Pennsylvania Turnpike, known in its day as the “Dreah the Allegheny Mountains using a series of tunnels, was originally the vision of a railroad un with picks and shovels in the 1800s, but the work stopped short when the railroad project fell through It would be left to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to finish the task fifty-five years later Eleven ineering, but it outlived its usefulness after only twenty-four years and was bypassed

Cars were already lined up along the curb of the neat suburban cul-de-sac several houses down the road from Julie and Jim’s when Paul and Ian arrived Ian picked up the paper sack froot out of the car and headed down the road Carrying a paper sack with a bottle in it was a fah, it contained sparkling grape juice

“You know,” Ian said, “I think this will be the first new year I’ll start without a hangover”

“It’s going to be a good year for both of us,” Paul said

Paul had been starting his years since Sara had been gone with a long hangover of his own—a hangover of grief and loneliness For the first five years, he kept attending Julie’s annual party He painted on a smile, stood to one side, and excused himself at around 12:05 Finally, last year, he had decided not to bother with the act He had watched the ball drop alone on TV He didn’t want to be social and yet couldn’t quite bring hio to bed early He probably should have It was anticli He could hardly believe that one year ago he hadn’t even known Ian existed There was actually a tio, that Ian had not been a fact of his life

“Where were you a year ago?” Paul asked

“You don’t really want to know,” Ian said

“Yes, I do”

“No, you don’t” They had arrived at Julie’s door Ian quickly rang the bell, putting an end to the subject

Julie was dressed in a long red goith a dangling rhinestone necklace and s