They were all present, as usual.
Though an invitation had not been sent out, each and every one of them had arrived promptly at the dinner hour, and each and everyone of them behaved as if they should have been expected.
They were seated appropriately around the large oval table. The two most powerful of them were at either side of me - Cowardice to my right, and to my left, Selfishness.
Those two were dressed to the nines, in an obvious attempt to appear as attractive as possible.
The other four in attendance were dressed a bit more or less in appropriate dinner attire, except for Apathy, who looked as if putting on a pair of shorts and an old, worn-out T-shirt was as inconvenient as a root canal.
Desire looked at the large serving platter full of appetizers that Excess was in the process of eliminating and wondered if Abulia could be bothered to fill a small plate with a few of the more decadent looking pastries, but then thought better of it as Excess appeared to have put his fingers over everything on the platter.
For the first fifteen minutes not much was said by any of the six demons in attendance, and I certainly wasn't about to start a conversation. It was all I could do to keep my seat, truth be told. As individuals, each demon was...tolerable. As a congregation, well, let's just say the flight or fight response was getting an Olympic-class workout in my brain.
Finally, after a loud burp, Excess looked up from his plate and said to me, "I hope you enjoyed shopping for clothes this year buddy boy, especially pants - might want to get a new belt as well, the one you're wearing looks ready to give out."
That elicited a few laughs and snorts from all present, with the exception of Cowardice. After they all quieted down, Selfishness looked around and said, "My, my, my...I think I've done rather well this year...look at all the nice things I've added to the household. The rate at which I'm acquiring...*things* may make it necessary to build another little storage shed out back."
"Heh, fat chance of that happening." Abulia quipped with a snort.
Apathy nodded his head in agreement as he stared out the window that looked into the street in front of the house. The window was hazy with more than a years worth of grime. Turning to face the others at the table, he let out a sigh and looked at his half-empty plate and then over to Excess, saying, "You want the rest of this?"
Desire quickly interjected, "I'll take it - Excess has already eaten all the appetizers, and I'm starved."
Both of them had hands on the plate Apathy had pushed towards the center of the table, but Selfishness pulled it away from them both and set it down in front of himself, saying, "Too slow fellow demons, too slow. I'll savior every bite of this though, in honor of your efforts."
Selfishness dug in and Desire and Excess fumed, while Cowardice shrank back into his chair as Apathy and Abulia simply shrugged and stared into space.
With a quick glance at the clock I reached over to the small hutch where I had placed the notepad I had been writing on before the demons had come over to the house.
I had carefully listed twenty-three items that needed to be attended to, and with the same determination I seem to re-discover every year during the week after Christmas, I cleared my throat and spoke.
"Okay demons, this is it. 2015 is the year I'm finally going to get some things done, and none of you are going to get in my way, or else."
The words had barely left my lips when the room exploded in uproarious laughter, even from Apathy and Abulia. Hell, Cowardice nearly fell out of his chair.
With a pained effort to regain his composure, Excess looked over and, smiling like a drunk hyena said, "Resolutions? Again? Oh jeez man, you are a riot!"
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