Thanksgiving

I zipped up my suitcase and looked out my bedroom window. Everyone was bustling about and getting ready for Thanksgiving. I smiled watching Mrs. Harrigan pretend to struggle to take the groceries out of her car.

“Harold!” She yelled. “Harold, I need help!”

“Okay, okay.” Her husband calmly walked out to get the groceries from her. They did this every week, but it was always a bigger deal around the holidays.

“Are you ready Pumpkin Pie?” my dad popped in his head to my room.

“I sure am Mashed Potatoes!” I responded.

“The Turkey is finishing up in the kitchen…”

“I am NOT The Turkey!” my mother yelled.

“You are the greatest Thanksgiving food my lovely! You are the turkey on the table! So perfect, golden brown and crisp, and moist…”

“Stop dad!”

“Well…” he raised his eyebrows. “I love turkey.”

“As much as or more than you love mom?”

My parents were very affectionate. I had always hoped I would find a love like they had.

“Yam and all Green Beans will meet us up at the cabin and we will pick up Bread Rolls on the way.”

“For some reason I am getting very hungry.” I said as I walked toward the stairs. “Dad are we still talking about people?”

He smiled and grabbed my suitcase.

“We need to stop at Mr. Hubbard’s Bakery before we leave town.” Mom said.

“For what? You can get everything we need at the grocery store by the cabin.”

My mom was shooting darts out of her eyes towards my dad.

“Pumpkin Pie, please text Bread Rolls that we are here, and she needs to come down.”

“Dad, I don’t think Becca would appreciate being called Bread Rolls.”

“Why not? I love bread rolls”

-U R Bread Rolls this year – I texted her. -Be prepared! We R Here.

“Done.” I stated.

“I thought you didn’t like Mr. Hubbard’s Bakery.” Dad continued.

“I like it there.” Mom shrugged. “I just don’t like it when Marie is the baker. She over kneads the dough. And that new manager Tony is a piece of work. But! I was assured that Chrissy was going to make my pies and Tony is out of town.

“Wow.” My dad shook his head.

“Is mom still The Turkey?” Becca jumped into the car.

“I am NOT The Turkey!”

“Mom! You’re The Turkey every year!”

“This is awful.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

“Dad, why can’t we be the same thing each year like mom? Last year I was…”

“You were Green Bean Casserole!” I laughed.

“Yuck! I hate that casserole.”

“You love that casserole.”

“Yeah dad, when I was 2 and didn’t know any better.”

“I have a clever idea.” Mom said. “What if we go by everyone’s names?”

“Nah!” Becca, dad and I all said together.

Poor mom just rolled her eyes at us. She was outnumbered. And if the rest of the family had a say so they would have agreed with us.

“Don’t forget to stop at Mr. Hubbard’s!” Mom yelled frantically.

Dad hit on the brakes and pulled into the parking lot. “Don’t buy the whole store!”

Mom smirked.

Twenty minutes later she came out of the bakery with her order. Bourbon pecan pie for dad, pumpkin pie for Becca, apple pie for me and a harvest pie for everyone else as well as various rolls and breads. She had a scowl on her face. Oh boy. She opened Becca’s door and practically threw her bags at us. “Hold these and don’t ruin the pies. Laney, don’t you eat them!”

She entrusted the wrong person with the pies.

“What?” I gasped. “Mother! I would never do…”

“Ugh that Tony! What is he doing here? He’s so awful. I want him fired. Chrissy just told me he’s here because he’s Mr. Hubbard’s Son-in-Law. I tell you if I had a son-in-law like him, I’d disown any daughter who married him!

“That bad huh?” Dad started driving.

“He was there! I had to deal with him. I don’t know why, but he just gets to me.” Mom paused then changed her demeanor, “Oh Laney, I’m sorry honey. Chrissy did put a mini pumpkin pie in one of the bags for you. And Becca, there’s one of those cinnamon muffins you like somewhere in there too.”

We both started searching for our goodies.

I never asked her but my guess is that she didn’t like Tony because Mr. Hubbard laid off his long standing manager of twenty-five plus years – whom my mom adored – and then hired Tony – a guy who didn’t know much about baking; or managing a store. He might have been a really great guy but we will never know because of the prejudice my mom held against him. Really, it was Mr. Hubbard’s doing. She should have just stopped going there…but they truly have the best pies in the whole entire universe. And Chrissy is an amazing Pie Expert.

“Where’s mine?” Dad whined.

“Well I thought you didn’t want anything.”

“Not even a coffee?”

Mom touched his arm gently. “Honey, you know you don’t like their coffee.”

“McDonalds' coffee it is.” It was his favorite.

Rides in the car were always fun with my family. We played games, told jokes and stories…dad told dad jokes and then we would make fun of him. We’d sing songs and make fun of songs. It was rarely dull, and we didn’t need any electronic entertainment because when we were together, we’d always want to be a part of what went on in the car.

Almost three hours into our five-hour journey Dad started wobbling the car a bit. “It’s too quiet in this car.” He said. “And I need more coffee.” He turned on the radio and searched through the stations.

“Already?” Mom opened her eyes. She looked out at the trees. “You know it’s supposed to get cold the rest of this week. I wonder if it’s going to snow.”

“NO SNOW!” Becca yelled.

“YES SNOW!!!!” I shouted. “I hope it snows. Hey dad, do you remember the year it snowed the end of October?”

“I do! That was about seven or eight years ago, right sweetheart?”

Mom nodded. “The snow stuck and winter set in early. It snowed all through November and the roads were bad.”

“Of course, you’d remember the roads.” Becca said, “I remember we found some old ice skates in the shed and after Dad and Devin cleaned them up, we tried them on, and Laney was pouting because none of the skates fit her. That was when I actually liked the cold…and the outdoors.”

“Mom was so scared that we’d get hurt.” I smiled.

“Yeah well, Becca did get hurt, and you, you little daredevil; you walked out onto the frozen pond and almost fell through.”

“I didn’t almost fall through Mother…Turkey.” I smiled.

Mom frowned and looked at me through her vanity mirror. “Becca had to get 16 stitches in her left leg, a cast on her right and a concussion because she ran onto the ice to save you.”

“Yeah dummy. The ice started cracking. Mom knew that the ice wasn’t frozen through enough for us to go ice skating on it. We tried the sides of the pond but that wasn’t too fun. And you Laney; you had to walk further onto the frozen pond.”

“Oh.” I looked out the window. “I don’t remember any of that.” My smile had disappeared. How could I forget all of that?

“Maybe that’s a good thing.” Dad winked at me.

I grinned back and grabbed Becca’s hand. “Thanks for saving me big sis Bread Roll.”

“Don’t get mushy Pumpkin Pie. I won’t do it again.” She smiled and squeezed my hand.

“McDonalds!” Dad swerved over to get off the freeway. “Oh, thank you!”

“Isn’t this the one we stop at every year?” Becca looked around the area.

“I think so.” I said looking out the window. It looked like it had been remodeled. "I don't think Dad recognized it because it looks so different.

He pulled up to a gas stall and my mom ran in to the building.

I stepped out of the car and took in a deep breath. The gasoline smell hid the crisp mountain air but as I walked away from the car, that good, sweet air started coming back. So many memories were associated with that. How could I forget that Thanksgiving? I saw my mom, walked up to her and gave her a huge hug.

“I love you my Lovey-Laney-Girl”

“I love you my Mommy-Mom.”

“I got my coffee and the car is gassed up. Five minutes!”

After we were all done with our stop we all piled back into the car and settled in.

“Everyone ready? Two more hours and we’ll be at the cabin.”

I sat trying to remember past Thanksgivings at the cabin. I felt so bad that I brought up the worst one ever. I just couldn’t believe that I had forgotten what happened. I looked at everyone in the car and they seemed to have moved on. No one was still thinking about it but me. I tend to over think everything anyway.

“Okay everyone;” Mom interrupted my thoughts, “I’m thinking of a song with the word ‘pumpkin’ in it.”

Silence…

The three of us started singing different songs in unison and mom winced from the horrible noises.

“I sang first.” Becca yelled.

“No, I sang first!” I yelled back.

“I won because I’m her husband.”

“No dad. That’s not how that works.”

“Oh yes it is. That’s exactly how it works.”

I sat back and smiled. Making new memories is awesome.