DRIFT AWAY

I’D WOKEN UP WITH a feeling of electric excitement – that something was happening. Something good.

I lay still for a few moments and then smiled into my pillow. It was Christmas Eve. A day I loved and waited for all year. I sat up slowly in the darkness. I could hear the soft, slow breaths of my sweetheart sleeping and, not wanting to interrupt the slumber, I slipped out of bed. My dog was lying across the foot of the bed and she opened one brown eye to look at me. I squatted down beside her and whispered