As it was creeping closer to midnight we noticed an old man approaching, wearing a nightgown and sandals on his feet. Thinking we may have woken him and he was coming to see what the noise was all about Seth walked over to apologize and see that he was alright.



He came back a few minutes later.
‘so?’
‘Says he’s father time, I think he’s lost his marbles, probably been on the grog all night’

Well ‘father time’ stayed, took out an hourglass every few minutes, shook it and put it back again. Talk about loony.



For the next half hour we drank some more, toasted marshmallows and watched Jane do the Bonfire dance.



The party was in full swing by now and out came the pots and pans! Bang crash bang! The noise was horrendous! If we woke one old codger up before with the noise surely the whole neighbourhood would be awake now.

And of all people to start the rukus!!



With less than 20 minutes till the countdown, we all grabbed our drinks and gathered around in a circle, pots and pans at the ready. Father time even joining us after grabbing himself a drink.
The bonfire had burnt to the ground in what seemed like seconds and Rob had already swept up the remnants.



We talked and drank and laughed. Old father time telling bizarre stories and keeping us amused when all of a sudden he jumped up, pulled out his oversized hourglass one last time and inducted the countdown.



‘Heyyy, the old fella’s up to mark the occasion, woohoo, you go old man’ Liam was yelling over the top of ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1’

‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’

And the rukus began once again.



Then poof!
A strange thing happened.
‘Hey where’d he go?’
We stood there in amazement as where one second ago an old drunk who’d come to join our party had vanished into thin air.
We looked at eachother and then back to the spot where he was, and there, in his place was a baby!
‘where did he come from?? Ok who spiked the drinks’



No one laughed, just swapped quizzical glances at eachother as this baby in a banner and top hat waved party favours and blew whistles as we stood and watched, not quite sure if we were seeing what we thought.
The thought ‘mass hysteria’ crossed my mind.



The silence was broken by the sound of sirens and a police car pulling up. Surely we weren’t breaking the law! It was new years after all.
But the officer strode towards the house, turned and strode back towards his car. Stopped to mull something over.



Probably wondering why all was so quiet, made his way back to his car and drove off?

Strange, but at least we weren’t in any trouble.

Jane headed inside the house to turn the music down and when we turned around again, the baby had also vanished.
This is the town which should be named Strangetown.
I guess we’ll put it down to too much alcohol and a wild imagination.

After the bizarre turn of events within the last 10 minutes the party broke up, with everyone saying their goodbye’s.

The last thing I remember as we were leaving was a strange looking dog with glowing eyes watching Jane as she re-entered her house. Maybe it was just my imagination, or rather, hallucination.



Come to think of it, I have a feeling I saw that dog a few times during the night. If so, I really do hope it was an hallucination!