New Year's Kiss
For Dean Lowery, 1960 had been one his biggest years. He had left the air force honorably, trading in fighter jets for the jet age. The twenty-eight year old had also become one of Pan American Airway's youngest first officers, even though he had his eyes on the captain's seat. He loved his life in New York and the friends that it had made him, particularly his girlfriend Bridget Pierce. To the young pilot who had the world at his feet it seemed only right to celebrate his best year with a party. However one thing led to another and the plan of a big party resulted in him, Bridget and Colette sharing a drink in a warm Oslo pub, while it snowed outside.
"I'm sorry it's not a big party," Bridget hummed as she rested her hand on his inner thigh. Dean had only been dated the British Blonde for three months but had found that she touched rather intimately when in public if she had a few drinks.
"This is nice," Colette uttered quietly sipping on her drink, "It is intimate."
Without warning, Bridget's English accent merged into a French one and French left her pink lips. Dean wondered if it would be perceived as romantic if he kissed her soft pink lips to make her stop speaking a language he did not understand. He deiced against it as the two women erupted into giggles.
"A minute to go," Bridget declared as she checked Dean's watch without permission. One of the bar staff handed them a bottle of champagne and the patrons of the quiet bar were united in their chanting.
"Five, four, three, two, one," the patrons called as their accents merged, "Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year," Bridget whispered as she leaned into Dean's embrace, going in for the kiss. The American happily obliged, kissing her soft pink lips until she pulled back, turning her attention to Colette.
"Bonne Annee," Bridget uttered as she kissed Colette on the cheek.
"Bonne Annee, Bridget" Colette replied in return, before kissing Bridgets cheek. She also leaned across the table and kissed Dean on the cheek, "Happy New Year, Dean."
"Happy New Year, Colette," Dean replied as Colette returned to her seat. Dean ran his hand over his face, removing a trace of her lipstick.
Dean could never look back on 1963 fondly; it was by far his hardest year. It had been filled with joy; his captainship, the friendship of Laura Cameron, and falling for Colette. It had also been filled with pain; Bridget leaving, then coming back and causing pain, losing Colette, and his suspension from Pan Am. Yet, Dean was optimistic he had to believe that 1964 would be his redeeming year, and by the time 1965 rolled around he would be on top of his game.
The crew celebrates the New Year at Kate's apartment because apparently she can see the ball drop from her apartment. Dean feels oddly underdressed for the party, as the girls have all dressed up, and Colette is showing off her beautiful back.
The evening muddles in his brain probably because of the alcohol he and Ted had on the plane, celebrating Ted's impending fatherhood, and Dean still having a job. Dean finds out that Colette has a brother who she wants to find, and he offers to help.
He places his jacket over Colette when they move to Kate's balcony to watch the ball drop.
"Goodbye, 1963," he declares his eyes resting on Colette for a second.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," Maggie declares, and Dean smirks in silent agreement.
"I loved every minute of it," Laura declared as she rested her head on Ted's shoulder.
"I love us," Colette answered, which makes Dean wonder if Colette would ever 'I love you' to him again.
"And this - I love this," Kate declared as she let the cold breeze reach her face.
"That ball'd never land," Ted, the father-to-be declares as he lets Laura rest on him. Dean sighs knowing that they'll be a fall out when Laura finds out about Amanda and her new state, something Dean does not want to be around to see.
"Happy New Year, Dean," Colette whispered, as she leaned into a kiss.
Suddenly the ball has dropped, he and Colette are kissing, and Dean decides that 1964 is going to be his best yet.
Dean would not consider 1964 his best year, but certainly find it to be wild ride. Colette takes him up on his offer to help her find her brother, so they go searching. They spend months looking through records and trying to seek out people who knew the HaLevy's. Colette even tries using her birth name, before accidently saying Valois whenever her name was asked of a second time.
They do not find her brother before the six months is up, and the return to Pan Am with heavy hearts. They also find each other again, and slowly the steps of forgiveness are built. 1964 proves to be Dean's year of redemption.
Eventually, Colette's brother found her. Dean stood there and watched as Colette talks to the young man on the phone, smiling the whole time. He is invited to New York for the Christmas and New Year period. Dean went with Colette when she picked him up from the airport and finds him flirting with the young stewardesses.
Colette hosted the New Year's party that year, and the crew reunites. Laura finally talks to Ted, who did not marry in the end because Amanda was faking her pregnancy. Within hours the pair of them are smiling and joking, and Dean hopes that maybe 1965 will be Ted's year of redemption. Henri with his long eyelashes and sweet smile quickly makes friends with the majestic crew.
They cannot see the ball from Colette's apartment so the menfolk all hold up their watches while the women chant the countdown.
"Five, four, three, two, one," they chant. "Happy New Year,"
Dean plants a kiss on Colette's lips while the others cheer.
"Happy New Year, Dean," Colette whispers when they finally break apart.
"Happy New Year, Colette," Dean whispers in response.
The next few years pass with adventure and joy. 1965 proves to be the year that Ted finds himself again, and by 1966 he and Laura are a couple. 1967 is the year turns thirty and the year she starts talking about the future. 1968 is the year that Dean starts suggesting marriage as an option when Colette is ready to give up Pan Am. Kate and Maggie already have given up Pan Am, with Kate joining an international shipping company which meant she was seldom in New York, and Maggie raising hell in Washington DC as part of the growing Civil Rights movement.
1968 is the first New Year's Eve that the crew of the Clipper Majestic does not spend together. This surprises none of them, although it upsets them, they simply move on. Laura vows to host a party/catch-up after the New Year, but Dean starts to wonder if this plan will ever come to fruition.
Dean does not complain when Colette suggests they spend New Year's Eve in bed. They retire early and find themselves counting down the New Year using Dean's watch.
"Five, four, three, two, one," Colette whispers as she nestles into Dean's embrace. He kisses her cheek. "Happy New Year, Dean,"
"Happy New Year, Colette," he replies as the watch is discarded.
They ring in the New Year and the baby in conceived.
Amelia is seven before they make an effort to ring in the New Year. The previous celebrations had been rushed kisses on the stroke of midnight before tending to a fussy baby or a toddler with a nightmare. They decide to include Amelia in the New Year's celebrations; the three of them sit in their pajamas; playing cards, watching movies and eating cheese on biscuits. The couple tells the child a child friendly version of how they met. The child fell asleep before the clock had even hit nine thirty, much to the amusement of her parents. They left her asleep on the couch, covering her with a blanket and returning to their movie.
At five to twelve, Amelia stirred kicking the blanket off.
"Did I miss it?" Amelia cried as her parents turned to face her.
"Non, mon Cherie," Colette whispered as she picked up the discarded blanket.
"There is five minutes left, kiddo," Dean declared as the child moved into her father's lap.
"Then its 1977," Amelia answered.
"Exactly," Colette replied, rubbing Amelia's dark hair, "A whole new year,"
The five minutes flew by quickly, and the family began the countdown.
"Five, four, three, two, one," Amelia shrieked, clapping her hands. "Happy New Year,"
"Happy New Year, Dean," Colette whispered as she went in for the kiss.
"Happy New Year, Colette," Dean replied after the kiss had ended, and the pair of them smiled for a second.
"Why do we kiss on the New Year?" Amelia asked, as she stared out the window looking at the neighbors fireworks, Dean made a note to include fireworks in next year's celebration.
"It is tradition," Colette answered, as she and Dean both planted a kiss on their daughter's cheeks.
The years pass in blur; Amelia grows up before them and life is good. To ring in 1986, Dean and Colette decide to have a party. They invite Maggie and Kate to the party expecting to get declines as RSVP's, but to their surprise both of them turn up with new tales and expensive bottles of wine. The adults all sit together and reminisce about their days in Pan Am, and also discuss their new lives.
Seventeen year old Amelia is allowed to have her best friend Jennifer over, and the two teenagers manage to take a bottle of wine from the collection on the side table. Unbeknownst to the adults in the lounge, the two teenagers spend the evening drinking straight from the bottle.
About ten minutes to midnight, Jennifer came rushed into the lounge with fear etched on her adolescent features. The parents rush to the bathroom when Jennifer tells them that Amelia is throwing up. They find the empty bottle of wine next to the toilet bowl and share a concerned look.
"I'm sorry," Amelia utters between retching, and any anger that her parents had over her behavior is dissolved.
"Did you drink the whole bottle?" Colette asked, as she rubbed her daughters back.
"Most of it," Amelia admitted as she vomited again, Colette reached forward and took Amelia's hair before that became covered in puke. "Does drinking alcohol always end up like this?"
Every fiber in Dean's body wanted him to say yes, he wanted to protect Amelia never to touch alcohol again. She was growing up too fast for Dean's liking, so Dean would trade anything to stop adulthood from taking his sweet daughter.
"Non," Colette whispered honestly, "It's only like this when you drink most of the bottle in less than an hour,"
Ten minutes later, as the clock struck midnight Dean and Colette kissed in the middle of the bathroom despite the smell of puke.
"You two are kissing while I'm puking," Amelia declared as her parents broke apart with smiles on their faces.
Everything changes in the years that follow. In 1987 Dean retires from Pan Am after being nudged because he was turning fifty-five, and that same year Amelia graduates high school second in her glass. Amelia headed to a school in Washington State which had specialist aeronautics engineering program. It seemed only fitting that the offspring of a pilot and a stewardess wanted to build airplanes. In 1988 Dean became a pilot instructor as he was not content to retire just yet.
During the winter break Amelia usually visited her parents for Christmas and New Year's. For New Years Eve of 1990 the twenty-one year old had plans at a bar.
"Why aren't you drinking?" Colette asked as she and Dean settled in for a quiet New Year's Eve with movies and wine. They had both decided they were too old to go to parties.
"In case Amelia calls," Dean replied as he opened his can of cola. It was not the same as a cold beer, but he was willing to sacrifice it.
"I thought she was staying with Emma," Colette muttered as she put the corkscrew down, deciding not to open the bottle of wine. "I gave her some money for a taxi,"
"I know she said that, but you know how parties are. I told her if she was in bad situation I would go and pick her up," Dean replied. He knew that Amelia probably went to worse parties in college, but then she was thousands of miles away, but when she was home Dean still wanted to protect her.
"You cannot protect her forever," Colette reported.
"I know," Dean informed his wife, "But I promised her that I would pick her up if things got crazy,"
"Well I guess we will be toasting with soda this evening," Colette uttered as she got up to go get a can of cola from the fridge.
Hours later when the clock struck midnight, the pair of them kissed before toasting with cans of soda instead of their usual champagne.
The nineties roar on and despite Dean wishing otherwise Amelia becomes an adult; she graduates college in the top ten per cent of her class, she moves away to Texas, and even meets a man who eventually moved in with her. Dean was certain that marriage would not be two far away for the couple.
Dean and Colette were planning to ring in 1995 quietly. They were certain that they were too old to party, as the year before they had both fallen asleep at friends party, much to the amusement of other guests.
They were about to open a second bottle of wine when the telephone rang. Dean sighed as he heard it; he really did not want to be disturbed.
"Let it ring," Dean cried as Colette got up to answer the telephone.
"No," Colette declared, "It might be important,"
A few seconds later a smile crossed Colette's face.
"It's Amelia," Colette uttered, "How do I put this on speaker phone,"
After scrambling with the phone for two minutes the phone became a speaker phone.
"Jason and I have some to tell you," Amelia called through the phone; Dean could tell his little girl was smiling. He ran through the possibilities of what she would be announcing; a promotion, a pregnancy or that she was returning to New York.
"Do tell," Colette uttered as a smile crossed her face, as she wanted to know what was making Amelia so happy.
"Well," Jason piped in with his Texan accent. "I took Mia to her favorite restaurant and I got down on one knee,"
"He proposed," Amelia declared not letting her now fiancé finish his story.
Colette started speaking in rapid French, which was too fast for Dean to comprehend despite learning French during the three decades he had known Colette.
The conversation continued until the New Year countdown which the four of them counted down over the phone. The second the clock struck midnight Dean kissed Colette and another New Year was rang in.
By the time the millennium came around everything had changed again. Amelia and Jason had moved up to New York. The pair had married in 1995 in an intimate wedding, and seemed to be talking about children though they had not happened yet.
The young couple as planned to have a party to celebrate the millennium, despite their apartment barely being big enough for the two of them. Dean is surprised when the invite is extended to him and Colette; after all they were too old to party all night.
Being the oldest party goers gave them the couch for the whole night. They watched the thirty-something party goers talk about their jobs and their hopes for the new millennium. Dean and Colette just sat there with their paper glasses shaped like 2000.
The countdown began and the group chanted. Dean and Colette uttered their usual words and kissed each other as the clock struck midnight.
2004 was the year that Amelia told them she was pregnant, and the impending child was set to be spoiled by his grandparents.
They spent the New Years Eve of 2004 in a hospital waiting room waiting outside the maternity ward. Dean remembered waiting outside a similar white-walled room when Amelia was born; he remembered the anticipation and joy. Times had changed so Jason was in the delivery room with Amelia. Colette hovered around moving between her daughter who was calling out for her and her husband. This had been going on for most of the day, Dean had been sitting in the seat in the previous days clothes worrying and hoping.
At ten to midnight Colette came out wearing a big grin on her face, one that told Dean that the only news she had was good.
"We have a grandson," Colette informed her husband, sitting next to him.
"A grandson," Dean whispered as a smile crossed his face.
"With ten fingers and ten toes," Colette reported as she recalled the characteristics of the perfect little creature, "He weighs eight pounds three ounces and is seventeen inches long."
"What did Amelia name him?" Dean asked as he soaked in all the new information about the latest extension to his blood line.
"Her and Jason named him James," Colette reported.
"James Newton, has a nice ring to it," Dean uttered as Colette giggled.
"James Dean Newton has a better ring to it," Colette uttered.
A few seconds later it was the New Year so the couple kissed before Colette took Dean to meet his grandson.
They spend another New Year's Eve in the hospital. It is the New Years Eve of 2016. Colette was fixing the Christmas tree after James had played with and she fell off of the ladder. She had claimed she was fine but Dean had insisted on taking her to the emergency room.
Colette woke up in a hospital room with her left arm in a cast. Dean was sitting on the seat next to it with her with his head in his hands.
"Dean," Colette whispered her voice hoarse. "Dean,"
"Colette," he whispered as he woke up.
"What happened?" Colette asked as she looked down at her arm.
"Well you tried to fix something James messed up and fell off the ladder," Dean answered as he stroked her right hand.
"Is it broken," Colette asked as she tried to move her arm around, it hurt.
"The wrist no, but the ornament yes," Dean uttered as Colette smiled. "They are worried that you might have a concussion hence the accommodation,"
"Not realty the best place to ring in the New Year," Colette uttered as they both locked eyes on the clock.
"Happy New Year, Colette," Dean uttered as she leaned up to kiss him.
The next few years are filled with health scares and love. Their grandson James grows up, graduates and becomes a pilot starting in the air force before moving into a business with private planes. 2028 proves to be their last New Year's Eve they spend together.
Dean is admitted to hospital after Christmas and the whole family knows that he will not be walking out alive. Visiting hours are over long before midnight but Colette is not going to leave him.
"Come here," Dean whispered as Colette sat on the chair. She moved from the chair and to the bed. They lay next to each other with their hands knotted together. Their eyes focused on the clock as they counted down the seconds until the New Year.
"Happy New Year," Colette whispered as she kissed Dean's lips.
"Happy New Year," Dean replied with his voice cracking.
They lay in each other's embrace before falling asleep. For both of them it was the only sleep they would never wake from.
The nurses would tell their story for years as the greatest love story there ever was.