'Alright, Janie, you wait here for a tick, and I'll go and buy some ice cream. What flavor do you want?' The girl tilts her head and thinks for a bit, then gives a confident reply. 'Chocolate! I want chocolate.' 'It's New Year's today—I'll buy you two scoops. You can pick another flavor too.' 'Chocolate. I want chocolate for both.' 'Brilliant. Your wish is my command, my little pea.' 'You're the best, Da!' 'Don't run anywhere, now.' She watches her father squeeze through the crowded park and disappear into the throng. When he does, she pulls her gaze away, and begins to stare at her feet and count. Count until her father comes back. 'One, two, three...' The powerful beating of a drum interrupts the girl's mumbling. She looks up and sees the little theater across from her pull its curtains wide open, its host gaily thumping away at a hand drum. 'One, two, three! Ding-ding-ding, it's time for the puppet show! Gather around, little mateys, you won't want to miss this! Today we've got the Song of the Shepherd Boy.' Drawn by the adorable puppets, the girl can't help but approach the stage—though perhaps a wide-open wooden box would be a better description. 'Come January, King took up his greatest cane, come February, General waved saber just the same, 'Come March, riverbank burned with hardy flame, come April not a meadow to a sprout could claim, 'Come May, shepherd hugged his hornbeasts tame, and swore they'd find new home, far away...' The puppet hugs its shaggy hornbeast, seeming hurt beyond measure, and the girl can't help but grip tight at the cloth of her skirt. Behind the stage, the host continues to sing the song. 'Come August he forded through rapids clear, and 'hind him brayed his herd so dear, 'Unto drear September awaited forest grim, and shaking hornbeasts shook heads at him, 'Unto high October, a rest at mountain's foot, his beasts flock'd 'round him at center put, 'Unto cool November...' Before the host sings the next line, a large hand drags the girl out of the audience. 'Janie! Janie! What are you over here for? Why didn't you wait where I told you to?' 'I... I saw there was a puppet show. It was really good. 'Do you know, I came back to an empty bench and was scared half to death.' 'I'm sorry, Da, I... I shouldn't have gone off.' 'Come on, now. We'd better get home.' 'I want to watch it more, Da, at least...' The rest of her sentence is gulped back down. She glances at the puppet and his hornbeast hugging each other tightly on stage, and the backdrop is a verdant spring. She lets out a sigh of relief, and leads her father by the hand. 'Come on, Da, let's go home too.' 'Ahah, shepherd boy found his hornbeast a new home, then. Yet another happily ever after. Here, your ice cream.' 'Thank you.' The girl licks at her double scoop. 'Is it bad that it's happily ever after, Da?' 'Not particularly, Janie, there's just a lot of them. Might say we're sick of it.' 'Really? But even if they show them over and over, I think there's not a lot of happy endings anyway...' She takes another lick.