tales for dreamers: wish chimneys

On the last day of the year, everybody gets a chance to discard whatever they do not wish to keep.

It can be anything. Big or small. Old or new.

Most people bring the presents they received during the festive season but do not much care for.

Conversely, many people bring all the stuff they have too much of and could do with a lot less of. Clothes that no longer fit them. Accessories they don’t use anymore.

A few bring invisible possessions.

Regrets. Desires. Memories. Dreams gone sour. Longing for all they wanted but couldn’t manage to acquire during the year.

Whatever you bring, you get to toss it into a fireplace. It is no bigger than a large box but somehow it consumes everything you throw in and instantly transforms it into a wisp of smoke, which travels up a tall chimney and tumbles into the heavens.

(Funnily enough, it is the same chimney down which the gift-bearer slides once every year, in the dead of the night, bearing presents that people write to him for. It is said that the smoke of discarded things gives him plenty of hints as to what people want, or don’t want.)

Either way, you walk into a new year, lighter and freer than you had felt all of last year.