Begin

It begins tonight, as it does every year. It begins with a negation.

Tonight, there will be less night than last night. Tomorrow's dawn will be earlier than today's dawn.

And day by day, and night by night, as Earth turns on its axis, and as Earth revolves around the sun, the odd illusion that we are the center of the solar system is given lie, yet again, and the trick of an axis appearing to tilt runs on, and the season begins to change.

Object permanence. The Sun does not, in fact, disappear.

And yet...

Now it returns.

That's an odd trick, and neatly done.

And tonight is when it begins.