When the meal was finished, the bottles were passed round and according
to the tradition Dilsan, who was the oldest member present announced, “Gentlemen! This is the occasion when we announce our
resolutions for the coming year! I must remind you that the rules dictate that
these should never be too serious, but I am sure you will agree that this year
the unusual circumstances confronting us dictate that they should be
exceptionally frivolous. Any member is free to challenge another on the charge
of seriousness, with the accustomed penalties being imposed should the charge
be upheld. So we shall go round the room, starting on my left, leaving me to go
last. Amytar: you shall start”.
"My resolution is that during the next year I shall attempt to make
love to every pretty girl I meet!" Amytar announced. "You may all mock me and
jeer at me if I don’t!" Since he had to
reputation of being rather shy, this naturally met with general approval and
some laughter, except for those who had intended to announce the same
resolution themselves, and would now have to think of something different.
Naturally, I don’t recall more than
a very few of the resolutions that were proffered. There were some amusing
comments when Manturian, who was notoriously unfit and lazy, announced his
intention of walking right round the coast of the island. “You’ll never manage it!” someone hooted, “Even if you manage
to keep going, there won’t be time for you
to get more than halfway!” “That’d be pushing it!” came another comment, “I’d give you three days at the
most, before you give up!” “Three hours, more like!” But Maturin, rather spiffily, took the banter seriously and said he
seriously intended to do it.
The only unpleasant moment came when someone, I can’t recall who, said for his resolution that he would
learn to swim. This was held to be in very poor taste. It provoked some bitter
comments; one man even going as far to say, “What do you hope to
achieve by that? Prolong your miserable life by half an hour, if you’re lucky?” In fact, things
could have turned quite nasty if Dilsan hadn’t intervened by
commenting, “Exactly! That makes his
resolution extremely trivial, which is what the club rules are aiming at!” and fortunately this managed to calm the situation.
Finally, Dilsan himself rounded things off by announcing that during the
coming year he intended to get drunk as often as possible. “You’ve made a good
start!” someone called out. I was
only surprised that no-one else had opted for this resolution, since under the
circumstances it was a highly sensible thing to aim for. And so the proceedings
should have ended happily, had not Dilsan, his mind doubtless slurred by the
drink, announced as a final toast, “Gentlemen! To our
next meeting!” and a quite unnecessary
shadow of gloom was cast over the gathering; because of course we all knew
there would never be another meeting. By next year, the great island of
Atlantis would have disappeared for ever, and so would we.
