---

The leafless trees are dark against a pale blue sky

Men down in the city are raging

About crowds, costs, and consumption

Christmas is in bloom

The town and everything in it are colored red and green

Red poinsettia leaves are dangling from the ceiling at someone’s office

It’s a holiday party

The greasy creep in the corner is sipping egg nog and eyeing the mistletoe

Messy hair, crinkled eyes

His tie is too short, his shirt is too tight

Tan polyester pants

Just like when he went to prom in that suit so many years ago

They laughed at him

He had told his mother that he wanted a tuxedo like everyone else

But she was annoyingly practical

“This way, you can wear it again and again…”

Now it hangs in a closet untouched

It will live longer than he will

And he watches the woman of his dreams as she nonchalantly shuffles over to be under the mistletoe

Her name is Galaxy, and she’s the life of the party, the life of everything

His heart runs faster

He digs in his pocket for a breath mint and pops it

He starts to walk over to where she stands

It feels like he’s forcing himself through water

His head is swimming, his soul is racing

And when he gets to her, she smiles at him

“Hi, Dale,” she says. “Are you enjoying the Christmas party?”

Her teeth are so white, he thinks

And then he does it

He kisses her

Fast and sloppy

Her mouth tastes like Christmas cheer

Galaxy makes a face of disgust

“Ew! What are you doing!?”

Dale points up

“You’re standing under the mistletoe. That means you get kissed. It’s a tradition.”

A small crowd gathers

Murmurs and looks

Dale’s mouth goes dry

Then it comes

The slap

“Don’t ever come near me again!” Galaxy screams at him. “Pig!”

Everyone begins to laugh and clap

And as Dale looks at them all making fun of him, they have pig heads

He runs to the employee restroom

There’s a yellow water hazard cone on the floor for seemingly no reason

Perhaps the janitor has just finished mopping

But he’s at the party

And Dale wonders why

He looks into the mirror over the sinks

He has a pig head just like the others

He tries to tear it off

He pounds his fists and screams in frustration

“I’m making my lunch!”

He goes to a stall

Sits down on the toilet

And starts to cry

---

The janitor is kissing her beneath the mistletoe

His name is Joe

He’s old and gray

Joe opens one eye when he feels Dale watching him kissing his crush

Galaxy seems to really be into it

Dale’s heart explodes

He finds his jacket and slips it on

It’s cold outside and he can see his own breath

Red neon reflects in the snow

It all looks like spilled blood, he thinks as he starts out

A long, lonely walk to a lonely apartment with stacks of aquariums filled with lonely snakes

Home, where life begins and ends

He lies in his bed and stares at the ceiling

The voices in his head are all talking at once

Some are whispers, some are screams

The bodies are floating all over the room

Like light projections from Neverland

The spirits are all there

They are dancing everywhere