New Year's

New Year's is a turning point in Rudy Baylor's account of a failed romance and mounting debt: between Christmas and the new year, he arranges to return expensive gifts, but on the day after New Year's he finds that a burglar has taken them before he can do so.

Between Christmas and New Year's

After Sara Plankmore ended their relationship, Rudy spent Christmas alone in his darkened apartment. The foie gras he had bought spoiled, the caviar went uneaten, and he ate cheese and drank champagne while looking at the jewelry intended for Sara. His grief gave way, at some point between Christmas and New Year's, to a practical attempt to return the purchases to the stores. He also considered throwing them from a bridge, but recognized that his emotional state made it wiser to stay away from bridges.

The Burglary

The day after New Year's, Rudy returned to his apartment after a long walk and jog and realized it had been burglarized. The door had been jimmied. The thieves took an old television, a stereo, a jar of quarters from his dresser, and the jewelry he had bought for Sara. The return he had arranged was now impossible: the gifts had left his possession, but not through any deliberate act of repayment.

Aftermath and Significance

Rudy called the police, completed reports, and showed the officers his credit-card receipts. The sergeant told him to contact his insurance company. The episode links private heartbreak to material loss: the jewelry first embodied the expensive hopes Rudy had invested in Sara, then became part of the burglary report and the debt he still had to settle. Its timing, just after the new year, turns an attempted reset into another setback rather than a clean beginning.