THANKFULLY NOT (A Thanksgiving Tale)
THANKFULLY NOT
A Thanksgiving Tale
It was the end of Halloween, and only the remembrances of costumes, carved pumpkins, candies, scarecrows, and brooms remained. When school started once again the children, both young and old, told their tales of a wonderful and spooky night. The smaller children told stories of which costumes were the best, and which were the worst. The older children recounted stories of the cool places they had gone, such as the best haunted houses in the neighborhood, and the novelty of the shopping malls on Halloween night.
At the Sinclair residence in Seattle, Washington, Barbara Sinclair was busy between balancing her profession as a regional manager of a national restaurant chain, Bud’s Barbeque and Steak, and the raising of her three children. Tia was a fifteen-year-old who was intent on having her own space to do the things she wanted, and to be the young teenager she wanted to be. Danny was a six-year-old who got his hands into everything, from the teacher’s handbag at school to the Maui onion potato chips hidden away in the garage. Sally was a five-year-old who loved to follow her brother into every mischievous thing he could manage to get himself into. The Sinclair’s also had a female beagle named Butter, who also loved to get herself into trouble.
“Dis candy is really good. Hmm…I like the chewy part. Can I have the banana one?” Little Sally was sitting on the white leather sofa in the living room with a large plastic bag full of Halloween candy.
“You can’t eat all of the candy. That bag is mine too. Momma! Sally’s eating up all the candy.” Danny threw a small handful of candy at his sister, and then walked away stomping his feet to the study where his mother was.
“Danny, will you both stop fighting over the candy? Besides, if you eat too much of it you’re going to get sick and have cavities. And don’t hit your sister. Tell Tia to get downstairs and to help me put away the dishes.” Barbara was behind her computer on her mahogany desk trying to make heads and tails out of a few spreadsheets from work.
“Tia…Tia…hey Tia…momma wants you…right now!” Danny yelled upwards at the bottom of the stairway.
“Go to he-l…oh, well, hey look I’ve got to call you back later. My mom’s having a bear about the dishes or something. Or better yet, give me a call after I finish painting my fingernails. Okay?” Tia put the cellphone down onto her bed and ran downstairs in her nightgown.
“Tia? Look honey, will you finish putting away the dishes?”
“Sure mom, can I get the brats to help me with some of it?” Tia was standing in front of her mother’s desk with her lower legs crossed.
“If they’ll help. Otherwise, would you please help out a little? And by the way, when Thanksgiving rolls around in a few weeks I need you to help me with the grocery shopping, as well as to help me cook the turkey and set up the decorations.” Barbara looked up from the computer screen and furrowed her brow at Tia, who just stood there motionless.
“Scoot…scoot now! And please get the dishes put away post haste.” Barbara went back to her spreadsheets.
Three weeks had passed and the Sinclair residence took on the appearance of a pre-holiday home. On the oak dining room table there were Christmas cards, pens, and stamp books. Two boxes of Christmas decorations were placed close to the fireplace. Barbara intended to lite the fireplace on Thanksgiving Day.
“Mommy, Danny ate the last chocolate bar…and…the last fruit chew. No fair!” Sally tugged at her mother’s wool pants.
“Sally, will you and Danny stop fighting over candy? There are cookies and chips in the cupboard, just go and look. I’m going shopping now for our Thanksgiving dinner. Is Tia ready?”
“I don’t know mommy.” Sally walked off to the kitchen to look for some cookies and chips.
“Tia! Come on down right now! I’m leaving for the market and flower shop.”
“Okay, okay, mom. I’m still trying to find something to wear. Let’s see…pink scarf or powder blue scarf?
As Barbara and Tia were leaving the house, Barbara said to her two young children, “The Neiman’s next door will be looking in to see if you two are alright. Okay sweethearts? Bye now. Tia bring the large plastic shopping bags to the car. And you two, please behave and no fighting!”
At Foodland Emporium, a boutique grocery store in Seattle, Barbara and Tia made their way through the aisles placing item after item into the shopping cart. Tia wanted a bag of vegan chips and organic pineapple, mango, and orange juice.
“Which turkey should we get?” Tia turned over the large frozen turkeys in the open cooler.
“That one honey. How much does it weigh?”
“Mom, it says twenty-three pounds. It’s kinda big.” Tia grabbed the turkey with both hands and dumped it into the cart.
“Honey, why do you have two scarves on?”
“I guess ‘cuz it looks like a fashion statement.”
“Never mind, let’s get to the cashier. We need to pick the flowers from Les Fleurs.”
When the shopping was done, Barbara set the frozen turkey on the countertop in a silver tray. Tomorrow would be Thanksgiving and everything needed to be set out and prepared for the big holiday. Certainly one of the largest holidays other than Christmas. Right before bedtime, she went to the rooms of Danny and Sally.
“Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, is your tummy growling? Goodnight kiddo.” Barbara kissed Danny on his forehead and then left for Sally’s room.”
“Do you promise to behave tomorrow? How’s Teddy Bear? Is he okay?”
“Can I have candy tomorrow, mommy? I promise to brush.” Sally pulled her comforter up to her nose.
“No candy. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, salad, fresh corn, sour dough bread, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and strawberry sorbet. Is that enough? Goodnight baby.” Barbara kissed Sally on her cheek.
“Tia honey, when are you going to bed?” Barbara walked past Tia’s doorway.
“Yeah, that’s cool. He’s okay looking. Brad is way, way better looking. But Roger is just dreamy. Kinda like Niall of OneDirection. Oh, and I got sparkling emerald nail polish. It’s way too cool. My mom wants to say something to me. Gotta go.”
“Tia, tomorrow I want you to help me cook the turkey and make the gravy. Also, the decorations need to be straightened out. Will you help tomorrow?”
“Promise mom.”
At eighty-thirty in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, Barbara received a call from the main office of Bud’s Barbeque and Steak in Seattle.
“Barbara, I know it’s Thanksgiving, but we have an emergency that is way, way out of control. The restaurant on Post Alley is in dire need of a manager and staff workers. Half of the staff decided to take leave for vacation, take sick time off, or simply decided to quit. It’s like something out of a horror film. You need to call in employees from other locations, and you also need to figure out how to reschedule their work hours. If you come in to help I promise that you’ll receive a bonus on your paycheck. Will you please, please help out? We really need you.” Dan O’Brian, who was an assistant vice president with the restaurant chain, knew that he could count on Barbara since she had always been a trooper.
“Dan, I really don’t want to do this. But if it’s that much of an emergency, and it appears to be so, then I’ll simply tell the children that Thanksgiving will be one day late. Alright Dan, I’ll be there in forty-five minutes.” Barbara hung up the kitchen phone, and went to call the children together.
“Tia honey, come downstairs!”
“You two rascals stop watching Power Rangers and come here. Mommy needs to tell you something.” When Danny and Sally would not pull away from the television set, Barbara threw a couple of sofa pillows at them.
The three children went to the kitchen where Barbara was deciding whether or not to throw away the defrosted turkey. For safety, she placed the bird near the trash container.
“Mommy, why is the big turkey on the floor?” Sally went to pat the turkey. Danny kicked the turkey with his foot.
“Mom, what’s up?” Tia was still in her pajamas.
“Look kids, mom has to go to work right now. There’s a horrible emergency at work. We have to do Thanksgiving tomorrow. I know everyone was looking forward to having a wonderful meal, but it just has to wait. If you can wait, I’ll buy some early Christmas presents for you. You can open them early. Okay?”
“Promise mom?” Danny looked inside the cupboard for something to eat.
“Can you buy me a few CDs?” Tia had some great ideas for new CDs from her friends.
“Yes, yes, and yes. Now I’ve got to go right away. Tia, look out for everyone, and I’ll have the Neiman’s check in on you guys to make sure everything is okay. Tia, fix something for dinner. There’s enough food in the fridge.”
Barbara left in her red BMW, and the children went back to what they were doing. Tia put up a new poster of Bruno Mars, and the two younger children went back to watching television.
At five-thirty in the early evening, the sun began to set and Danny and Sally were beginning to get very hungry. The last of the Maui onion potato chips were long gone, and the remaining ginger snap cookies were also eaten. Tia was busy upstairs taking a bubble bath, with her vegan chips, and a large cup of pineapple, mango, and orange juice. When Danny and Sally knocked on the bathroom door, they tried to get Tia to fix them dinner.
“Tia, we’re hungry.” Sally pulled down her t-shirt.
“Momma said you have to fix us dinner, Tia.” Danny kept knocking on the door.
“You two little monkeys just find some cookies. Can’t you see I’m busy. I might be here all night. Leave me alone!” Tia turned on more warm water and added more bubble soap.
“Hey, I have an idea. Let’s make Thanksgiving dinner for mommy. You and I can cook the turkey, and make all the other food. Okay?” Danny pulled at Sally’s shirt as they both jumped down the stairs.
In the kitchen, the two children went to the turkey which had started to smell and dragged it over to the oven. Butter the family beagle started to lick the bird. Danny and Sally went to the spice rack to take out a number of spices and seasonings.
“We need sugar, pepper, salt, vanilla liquid, vinegar, steak sauce, ketchup, sugar dots, silver, red, and green ones, and what else?” Danny grabbed the ingredients.
“What about butter and onions?” Sally opened the refrigerator with both hands.
“Hey, we have to feed Butter. Get her dog food.” Danny pulled out the gizzards from the turkey’s chest and placed them in their dog’s bowl. Sally added a few handfuls of dry dog food, and water.
Butter sniffed the dinner concoction and ran out the kitchen door.
“Sally, we need to stuff the turkey. Bring the bread and cheese. And let’s pour some milk on top of it too.”
When the two children had finished dressing the turkey they opened the oven door. They tried to place the bird into the oven, but the racks were in the way. So they removed the oven racks and placed them on the floor.
“It’s too heavy. Pull harder. Move it into the oven.” Danny and Sally struggled with the twenty-three pound turkey, and eventually managed to put the bird into the oven.
“Put it on five-oh-oh.” Danny had just told Sally to heat the oven to five hundred degrees.
“Let’s go make some punch.” Danny pushed Sally to the refrigerator.
“Can we use milk and orange juice? And water, and mommy’s wine?” Sally almost spilled the milk, and Danny had trouble pulling the cork out of the wine bottle.
When the punch was made in a large punch bowl, the two took sips of the mixture with their plastic cups.
“Tastes funny.” Sally’s face scrunched up.
“We need more orange juice. A lot more.” Danny looked in the freezer for a can of orange juice. When he managed to pull off the plastic twist, he dumped the frozen juice into the bowl.
“Let’s set the table.” Sally took out the paper plates and placed them on the dinner table.
The turkey had been in the oven for nearly thirty minutes when the two noticed smoke coming from the kitchen. Tired of cooking, the children sat down in front of the television to watch “a kissy-kissy movie.”
Tia was in her room painting her toenails emerald green, while she was on the phone with one of the cuter boys from school.
“Uhm…Roger…ahh…I really think you’re a great artist. The pencil drawing of Giselle nude was really cool, you know?”
“How’s your Thanksgiving coming? Dinner pretty good?” Roger liked Tia because she had a “great body.”
“Well, mom cancelled it until tomorrow. She had to go to work. Emergency you know?”
“Don’t you have like a couple of brothers or something?”
“No, I have a brother, Danny, and a sister, Sally. They’re just a couple of little monkeys. Oh yeah, I was supposed to cook them a dinner. Oh well, they can just eat some more cookies. Roger, do you like Karen? She’s pretty.” Tia thought that she was prettier than Karen.
“Gotta go Tia, me and the boys are going to the Sub Races. If you catch my drift.” Roger did not really have anyone to go with to the 'Sub Races,' which was another word for making out.
At approximately seven o’clock the oven caught fire and ignited the countertop, as well as the wood cabinet next to the oven. The entire kitchen was soon engulfed in flames. The Neiman’s were too busy with their own evening plans, and did not brother to check on the Sinclair children. When Danny and Sally saw the fire, they screamed for Tia, and when she did not respond they ran outside to get the garden hose.
“Hi Brad. You know what? You’re really, really good-looking. I think you’re more handsome than Roger. Really. Do you think Karen is beautiful?” Tia had another potential boyfriend on her cellphone.
“It’s too hot!” Sally simply held the running water hose, and water started to puddle onto the living room carpet.
Danny ran outside the house and began to yell, “Help, help, there’s a fire, help, help!”
When the neighbors across the street smelled smoke, and saw the kitchen engulfed in flames they immediately called the fire department. After the firemen arrived at the home, Danny and Sally were on the street with a number of sympathetic firemen, who huddled the children next to them. Two firemen ran up the stairs to get Tia out.
“Nooo…Brad…I’d never cheat on any boyfriend. I’m the loyal type.” Tia was on her back on her comforter.
“Miss, miss, miss….” One of the firemen kept knocking on Tia’s door. When she did not answer, the two firemen busted open her door.
“What the f-u-c….” Tia was shocked, but then she smelled the smoke.
“Miss…let’s go right now!” One of the two firemen carried Tia in his arms and down the stairs.
The entire neighborhood was outside the house watching it nearly burn down. Eventually, the fire was put out. By happenstance or coincidence, Barbara Sinclair just happened to arrive back home. Stunned, she ran to her children and cuddled them close to her.
The lead fireman said to Barbara, “Your lucky the fire didn’t kill anyone. Your children could have died.”
Barbara quietly replied, “On Thanksgiving night, all I can say is, well, thankfully not!”
THE END
Dedicated to God Almighty (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit)...to God alone give thanks.
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