Thanksgiving: A Short Story

Looking out the kitchen window, the snow was just beginning to fall, a light dust covered the roof of the car that sat on the side street. She had hoped that today it would snow, it was surely a good day to wish for it. Thanksgiving only comes once a year, and this year she had so many things to be thankful for. It had been a nail biting year at times, but it was time to start making new memories, fresh memories, ones that would last for a lifetime. Smiling, Kelli daydreamed about what those memories might look like, baseball games, track meets, hiking and camping. Letting her mind wander as she pealed potatoes. She looked beside her at the young boy sitting at the dining room table coloring in his new book. Life couldn’t be any better than
I don’t know what it is with that man, every time we go anywhere he always wants to go the long way around. Keeps saying to me, ‘We don't know how long we got, need to learn to take life slower.’ To which my reply is usually something along the lines of, ‘well as long as we take it fast enough I am not dead before we get to the store’.” Both ladies
Neighbor kid or something? Did you start fostering kids again? I thought that was to hard on you, at least the giving them back part.” “No mom, he’s not a foster kid. In fact if you want to come out into the family room, I have something to show you.” Jo set the temperature on the stove to medium-high, starting the potatoes and followed Kelli into the family room.
In contrast to the bright cheery kitchen, this was infested with man cave items. Antlers hung from the east wall, while sporting memorabilia lay across book shelves and on the mantel above the fireplace. The green walls trimmed in dark oak, looked more like they belonged in a hunting lodge than a family room. A big screen TV hung above the mantel giving the latest stats of the impending game. Kelli whispered into Kevin's ear and he muted the sound on the TV. Kelli went to pick up an envelope sitting on the custom made coffee table. “Chevy” had been burned into the wood before being varnished, symbolizing Kevin’s pride and joy, which currently sat in the garage waiting for a fresh coat of paint. Bringing the manila envelope to her mother who had sat next to her dad, James, on the couch, Kelli handed it to her before going to sit on the arm of the chair in which her husband sat. “Go ahead, open