A New York Moment
By Nonnie Augustine, © 2006
Harvey C. Hamby was drunk. He held his liquor well, usually, but tonight he was off his form. Stumbling over an ottoman, he landed on the floor in an undignified sprawl. As he fell, his left foot shot out behind him and socked Glenda Steinberg in the back of the knee, and she fell, too, taking the waitress, Elena, and a tray of champagne glasses with her. Roger Steel was looking at himself as he passed a mirror and managed to trip over Harvey, and as he fell, he grabbed Edith Markham's arm and she went down on top of him. Harvey grabbed the ottoman and tried to get up as Sheila Reid was sitting down. She screamed when she felt a hand grab her ass and Jimmy DeLuciano, startled, took a step backwards and fell onto the couch, landing in the lap of Judge Anna Pavlorroti.
The Plaza banquet room was crammed with well-heeled New Yorkers, and all this falling, pushing, pulling, and tripping continued to have a ripple effect through the crowd who had gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve with newly-elected Mayor Goliannia. The voice of a young Frank Sinatra mixed with the rather loud laughing, cursing, crying, and moaning coming from the crowd, who were soon almost all on the floor.
The big screen T.V. was tuned to Times Square, and the ball was about to drop. Harvey, who had not managed to get up yet, turned his head toward the screen, but was sidetracked by Lenora Black's fabulous cleavage, shown to best advantage because she was lying on her side and her breasts were roughly at Harvey's eye level. He'd always been hot for Lenora Black, and he was drunk enough to sneak a feel, as he pretended to use his arm to push himself up. Lenora wasn't fooled.
She whispered, "In the last few minutes of the year there are many things going through everyone's minds, but I can assure you, what is going through your mind is nothing like what's going through mine. Get your fucking hand off my tit!"
Harvey complied. The Mayor, realizing the journalists and photographers in the room were upright and busy, couldn't come up with any idea other than turning out the lights in the party room. So he did. No one knew what happened in the dark after that, but the big ball did its thing, and the New Year began.
THE END
Nonnie Augustine is in the third version of her life. She was a dancer with a degree from The Juilliard School, a special education teacher, and is now writing full-time. Her poem “In Time” won third place in the Mattia International Poetry contest. Nonnie's poems have been published by the e-zines ”The Mad-Hatter's Review," "Real Eight," "the_beat," and “Southern Hum.” On paper she has been published by "Larraine and James" and will appear in "The Landing.” Her short fiction has been published by Quiction”, “The Writer's Tavern,” Preston Brady's Literary Coffee Mugs, Issues 1 & 2, “Salome,” and will appear in The Write Stuff in January. She is an active member of Zoetrope, and is, of course, working on a novel. Although she remembers having had a social life at one time, she seems to have misplaced it.