Part Five
As darkness settled, Zoot made his way to the piano and put a total of six candles in the Hanukkah menorah. He mumbled something under his breath as he lit one of the candles and used that candle to light the other five.
Rowlf watched the ritual as his paws trickled over the piano keys. “Hey, Zoot,” he said. “What’s Hanukkah about, anyway?”
Zoot didn’t look away from the flickering candles as he answered. “Miracles.”
“Oh,” Rowlf said. He thought about it. “Tis the season for those.”
Zoot nodded. “Mm-hm.”
“Hey, what’s that top thing you spin?” Rowlf asked.
Zoot reached into his pocket and pulled out a little wooden top with a Hebrew letter on each of its four sides. “Dreidle.”
“And that’s a game, right?” Rowlf asked.
Zoot nodded.
“What kind of game is it?”
Zoot hesitantly glanced around before he answered. “Gambling.”
The entire room was immediately at attention. “Gambling?”
“What are we gambling?”
“Yeah, what’s the bet?”
“How do we play?”
Zoot sighed. He set the dreidle on the piano where everyone who was crowding around could see it and pointed at the side facing up. “Miss your turn.” He turned the dreidle onto its next side. “Win the whole pot.” He turned the dreidle again. “Win half the pot.” Then he showed the final side. “Add to the pot.” He picked the dreidle up. “That’s it.”
“So lemme get d’is straight,” Rizzo said. “You got a one-in-four chance of winning everything?”
Zoot nodded.
“Alright, I’m in!”
“Si, si, me too, hokay! I like d’ese odds.”
Zoot shook his head and grabbed some poker chips to use for the game while Rowlf reflected on the little information he had gleaned about Hanukkah.
“Miracles and gambling,” the dog mused. “…Interesting holiday.”
“Hey guys! It’s dark enough to turn the Christmas lights on!” Gonzo announced as he ran outside, and the dreidle game was pretty much forgotten as the Muppets stampeded outside—herding Casey along with them.
“Do you think we’ll blow a fuse again tonight?” Fozzie wondered.
Kermit groaned at the mere mention of the possibility. Their extensive light display had blown a fuse ten nights out of the past two weeks. “It’ll be a miracle if we don’t,” the frog said.
“We have to go outside to see the lights turn on?” Casey asked, clearly hesitant.
“Trust us. It’s something to see,” Scooter said. “Did you bring any sunglasses?”
“It’s not that bright,” Fozzie said.
“OKAY! IS EVERYONE READY?” Gonzo shouted, waiting right next to the house.
“READY!” the Muppets all shouted back.
With an excited laugh, Gonzo started plugging in lights, and Casey caught her breath. She noticed that the Muppets, who had all seen this before, did the same.
First came the lights that outlined the front door, illuminating the wreath that hung there. Then lights lit up along the roof and railing and every single post on the front porch. Then every window was traced with lights, and then the house itself and every edge of the roof and chimney lit up. The walkway from the sidewalk to the porch was lined with glowing candy canes, and then the trees lit up, too—from the bottom of every trunk to the tip of every branch. Light reflected on the fake snow and the snow forts and snowmen, glowing on the face of every Muppet in the yard. Even if it had been cold enough outside for real snow, somehow, the scene before them would have felt warm.
“Beautiful,” Casey breathed.
Kermit nodded his approval. “Nice and simple,” he murmured. “You did a good job this year, Gonzo.”
Gonzo, who had run back to take in the view with everyone else, was too busy grinning to reply.
It was a rare moment for the Muppets; one that was pleasantly quiet and peaceful, with no one clamoring for attention or trying to hide anything or trick anyone; a moment that, for all it lacked in noise and chaos and action, felt full and rich and wonderful.
That was why no one noticed that a car had pulled to a stop behind them on the street until a man got out with a tall stack of large pizza boxes. “I’ve got a delivery here for the Muppets?” the man said.
“Dinner time!” Scooter announced.
With a burst of shouts and excitement, the Muppets grabbed the pizza and ran back inside while Kermit paid the delivery boy and gave him a generous tip.
Casey got so swept up in the wave of movement that she wasn’t entirely sure how she got inside—but then, she hadn’t been quite sure of how she had gotten outside, either. “You eat pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve?” she said as someone handed her a slice.
Gonzo shrugged. “We’ll have a big dinner tomorrow. This is just easy,” he said. “Besides—you’ve seen our kitchen.”
They ate with gusto, and before the pizza had even been completely consumed, Rowlf was back at the piano and the caroling had begun. They sang “Deck the Halls” around mouthfuls of pizza, and then “Let It Snow” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” They sang about Rudolph, and Mommy kissing Santa Claus, and sleigh rides, and silent nights, and three kings, and seemingly every other topic any Christmas carol had ever been written about. Animal even led them in what had to be the world’s fastest—and loudest—rendition of “Little Drummer Boy.”
Casey sat curled up on the couch, trying to take up as little space as possible, as she took it all in. She couldn’t help thinking about her family at home. What were they doing right now? It was three hours later there, so Tasha was probably—hopefully—in bed by now, and Nick would be playing Santa… Or maybe Nick was still trying to convince Tasha to go to sleep. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner Santa will get here, he would be saying. Alright, ONE more story…
Then Robin hopped up on the armrest beside her. “How come you’re not singing?” the little frog asked.
Casey blinked her thoughts away, and then she blushed. In a room so full of so many voices, how could anyone notice that she wasn’t singing? “I can’t sing,” she quietly confessed.
Robin stared at her as if this were the most absurd thing he’d ever heard of—and considering the house he lived in, that had to mean something. “Everyone can sing,” he insisted.
“No, but—I mean I’m not any good,” she said.
“So?”
“So, I… I don’t sing.”
Robin was still staring at her like this was absolutely bizarre. “Why not?” he said. “It’s fun to sing! Come on, sing with us!”
“I—I don’t even know the words to some of these songs…”
“But you know some of them, right?” Robin said. “Sing with us!”
“Yeah, sing with us, Casey!” Fozzie said.
“Yeah, come on, sing!”
“SING! SING!”
“Yeah, sing, Casey!”
“Yeah, c’mon and sing with us, Casey,” Rowlf said. “Everybody, Casey picks the next song!”
“Yeah, you pick, Casey. What’ll we sing?”
Casey looked about ready to try and crawl inside the couch. It took a while for the Muppets to realize how embarrassed she was, but when they did, they started to laugh.
“We’ll sing with you,” Kermit assured her.
“We’re not used to non-show-business-types,” Scooter explained apologetically.
“Yeah, ‘stage fright’ is kind of a four-letter word here,” Gonzo said. “But everyone sings on Christmas. Can’t you just pick a song for us? Please?”
“Please?” Robin begged, tugging on her sleeve for emphasis.
“Okay, okay,” Casey said, her hands clamped over her bright red cheeks. “Um, I… I don’t know. Maybe ‘Silver Bells’?”
They immediately and enthusiastically praised her for her choice. “But we’d better hear you sing!” Gonzo teased—or at least, she thought he was teasing. She sang quietly just in case, and received many nudges for it.
“We can’t hear you!”
So she sang louder, and found herself laughing as she did so. Thankfully, no one criticized her voice. Later in the evening, Kermit assured her that it wasn’t the worst he’d ever heard. In the end, she sang so much that she felt like she maybe was a part of this experience, and not just an observer, which meant that she didn’t miss home quite as much as she would have otherwise.
And she sang more that night than she had sung in a long, long time.
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I'd put something more constructive critical here, but I'm too busy laughing at Piggy's Victoria's Secret bag. XD
That would make me feel SO much better about the current state of mine....