Excerpt from "And to All a Good Night":

They gather in private homes and public venues; come together in bars and restaurants, school gymnasiums and auditoriums.  In stadiums and on playing fields, in theatres and drive-ins, in hospitals and sanitariums, the population of the Earth -- in its entirety -- queues, jostles, stands, sits and hangs from any location that will let them connect to the virtual channel that is available only once a year.  Like passengers aboard an aircraft, they strap in and wait.  One child, unwilling to have a beloved pet miss the occasion, plugs in his dog.  The animal doesn't give a damn, and promptly falls asleep.

                                                                    *

Nella doesn't know where she is.  Doesn't know who she is most of the time, come to that.  Her life -- once a riot of vibrant hues like the palette of an artist gone mad -- is now featureless and as grey as an old mattress.  This is not becuase she is blind, but because she is old.  Ancient.  The years have pulled her attention inward, away from the present and into a past where sporadic bursts of illumination color a bleak and barren landscape.

                                                                      *

All over the world, people settle in with hearts thumping and take deep breaths in a futile attempt to stem the rising tide of anticipation that threatens to burst them apart.  Drinks and food are put aside with restless hands. Fingers twine around one another, loosen, twine again.  Feet jiggle a nervous dance.  Someone sighs and shifts in her seat, unable to get comfortable.  Another coughs and clears his throat.  The petulant cry of a child sounds and is hushed.  Neighbors share a smile and exhaustion drops from the tired creases of their eyes like confetti.