November 25th, 1999 - 5:00 PM
The house was abuzz by the time we made it to Destiny Farm. The smell of delicious food wafted to my nose. Ann and her grandmother (and namesake) were in the kitchen slicing boiled eggs and stuffing them with deviled yokes. Adam was by the TV with an older bespectacled man and son Doug talking about his plans for the future of the farm. Grey chatted with a similarly dressed young man in the corner of the room.
Soft brown eyes paired with soft brown hair, pushed messily down under a backwards turned blue baseball cap. He wore some sort of sports jersey with matching colors to his cap, the number 26 was printed in bright yellow on his back and the name "Julius Curry" was emblazed across his firm pecs. I figured he must be some sort of sports fan. His muscular arms and broad shoulders spoke of his hobbies; I couldn't pull my eyes away from him. Every inch of his clothing pulled at his muscular body and his face… Somehow I could swear that I'd met him before.
"Rick darling!" called Grandmother Ann from the kitchen, pulling Rick into tight embrace as he came to meet her
"Oh it's so good to see you! And you've brought along a lady friend, is the little Karen from up the road?"
He flushed at being prompted to conversation as usually, "Yup. Um, her family doesn't really celebrate thanksgiving so I thought I'd invite her along." He explained.
"Oh, well it's so good to have you Karen." She said and wrapped me into a vice-grip hug as well, my gaze suddenly shifting back to the moment at hand and away from the stud just chilling in my friend's grandparent's living room.
I giggled at the enthusiasm they were showing me, I hadn't expected to be welcomed so wholly. "It was very nice to be invited along; I'm really excited to spend the day with you all." I said.
Then came a hug from my best friend, her red hair was pulled back in her standard high-ponytailed braid.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming to Thanksgiving our family?!" Ann shouted, you might have thought her offended if she didn't have a tell-tale grin pasted cheesily across her face.
"Well, don't tell Rick but I'd all but forgotten he'd invited me to come until he came by to pick me up this afternoon. What with all the winter preparations we've been doing around the vineyard and sending applications in for dance school, it just slipped my mind." I answered scratching my head nervously.
"Ah it's okay! Anyways, you wanna help out around the kitchen with me! There's so much to do!" She jabbered excitedly.
I glanced over to Rick but he'd already joined the circle of boys his age in conversation.
"Sure, what do you need?" I asked.
"Well, Granny's gotta finish setting the table… so… you can't really take anything out yet. But! The turkey does need to get sliced so we can bring it out." Ann said motioning along actively with her hands as she spoke.
I headed over to the turkey and looked around for a knife in the many drawers that filled the kitchen. Silverware, utensils, odds-and-ends, bentos, and then, after several drawers I noticed a knife stand on the counter. Slowly I carved up the turkey onto a serving platter, sorting dark meat from light. My eyes drifted back to the main room unconsciously meeting the eyes of the brown haired, falling deeply into his warm brown eyes. Everything seemed to just melt away when I looked at him, warm and secure. I could imagine his strong arms wrapped around me watching the sunset at Mount Moon, dancing together hand-in-hand at Flower Festival.
"So, how are thing going with you. I heard that you and Rick have been spending an awwwful lot of time together!" Ann suddenly piped in dragging me back down from the clouds.
"Yeah, it's really nice. I really hadn't been doing much with anyone up until recently." I said.
"Uh-huh. What about that new guy who started working at your vineyard? He's got a certain charm to him, don't you think?" She quizzed, prying me for details.
"He's nice enough," I said, then paused remembering the incident earlier today blushing, "He's certainly got a good heart I think. But…"
My eyes drifted back to the handsome brown haired man currently chatting with Rick and Grey, "I don't know if he's really my type."
Ann's eyes followed my gaze and giggled, "Do you have a thing for my cousin?"
My face burned when I realized she'd caught me staring, I glanced down.
"Turkey's done!" I announced, quickly trying to dodge the topic.
"Aww, you don't have to be embarrassed Karen, I'm sure he's got a thing for you too. I've seen the way he looks at you when you're not looking."
Suddenly a kettle on the stove started whistling. "I should get that!" I said frantically and darted off to retrieve the kettle from the hot gas stove.
Soon enough we were all seated at the table, the smell of roast turkey, , corn fritters, cranberry sause, homemade butter melting on fresh baked biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, cheese fondue, stuffing, and a huge assortment of pies. I sat sandwiched between my two childhood best friends, Rick and Ann. Farmer Adam sat at the head of the table beside his wife Ann. Across from her sat Rick's uncles, the bespectacled stranger and Doug.
"The name's Jack" Said the handsome sports jock said, extending me a hand before settled down into his seat,
"Karen." I answered, shaking his hand and blushing. "You look familiar, have we met before?"
"I don't think so." He said piling down his plate with an inordinate amount of food.
"Jack! We still need to say grace!" shouted Grandmother Ann from the head of the table.
"If you would darling?" she motioned to Adam to start the Thanksgiving prayer. We all held hand and bowed our heads, eyes closed.
"Dear Harvest Goddess, we give thanks to you on this great day for the pleasure of gathering together for this occasion. We give thanks for this food prepared by loving hands. We give thanks for life, the freedom to enjoy it all and all other blessings. As we partake of this food, we pray for health and strength. To carry on and try to live as you would have us. In the name of the harvest sprites we pray, Amen."
"Amen." We echoed and began to dig into the feast.
"So, umm… Jack. Where are you from?" I asked, curious to know more about him.
"Michigan." He answered shortly.
"What do you do there?" I pressed.
"I'm trying to get into major league foot ball; I'm hoping to make the cut for the Wolverine's this next quarter." He said giving me a funny look.
"Hey Jack, this wine was made from the grapes Karen's family produces!" Rick joined in producing a bottle of wine.
"That's cool. Football's cool…" I said as Rick filled up a glass of wine for me.
"So, do you come out here often?" I asked again. I was desperately curious about him. I wanted to know more.
"Not really. I haven't visited since I was a young kid really." I said shortly.
Eventually I realized I was the only one not shoveling down piles of food off my plate. I served myself a hefty portion of everything. I chugged my glass of wine and began to dig-in.
"I'll have you know that my daughter here made those fritters by hand just earlier today, they're good right?!" Doug jabbed across the table as I refilled my wine glass.
"They're really good." Rick agreed catching my sideways glance with a smile and winking at me friendlily.
I stuffed a couple in my mouth and it was a savory explosion of sweet buttery corn in a crisp fritter cake. "Mmm… They are really good!" I agreed, washing it down with a glass of my family's bitter wine.
"Do you like them?" I asked Jack.
He glanced over and locked eyes with me. My heart felt as though it'd jerked to a stop and I felt light headed just being at the center of his attention, if only for a moment.
"They're pretty good." He said.
When he looked away from me I felt like I would just go to tears, like my heart was being wretched from my chest. I just wanted to be near him. I looked for any excuse I could get him to speak to me, to look at me. I just wanted to be near him. His voice was velvety and warm, his eyes as delicious as freshly baked brownies, I could drown in them all day. His hair looked so soft and luxurious I wished that I could touch it.
"So you've been busy applying for different dance schools Karen, where all have you applied?" Grey asked me cutting me off from another barrage of questions aimed at Jack. I poured myself another glass of wine.
"Well, I've applied for Liberty University, the School of Contemporary Dance, Quinte Ballet School of Canada and Edmonton School of Ballet." I answered downing another glass. The wine tasting better and better with every glass.
"Have you heard back from any of them yet?" Adam asked me.
"Not yet, but there's still time. They don't finish enrollment until January." I answered, pouring myself another glass of wine and puckering my lips as the bitter tasted once again hit my tongue. But I wouldn't let it stop me. Wine was what my family did and it didn't matter how bad it had tasted in the last five years I would be proud of our work and show with every glass I drank.
"The Dallas Cowboys will be playing the Miami Dolphins tonight." Doug stated and peeled my wine glass from my hand.
"I think you've had enough for tonight." He whispered. I looked-up plaintively but didn't argue.
"If you boys help me get everything cleaned-up we can all settle down for the game." He roared now and that was all he needed to say and all three of the men we're ferrying dishes back to the kitchen and you could hear the swish of water as everything got cleaned up.
After a brief conversation about my continuing education I settled down with the only free-handed person of my own age: Ann.
We lay back on the couch watching the commercials cycle.
Soon enough we were all piled around the TV for a football game. I knew nothing about the game but I drifted to sleep, Ann fast asleep on my shoulder on Rick's shoulder. I fought to stay awake… if only just to see Jack a little longer. But it was no use and my fatigue overcame me.
I dreamed… I dreamed that Jack was the boy I remembered, the only one who knew what had happened to me growing up. The only one who'd witnessed first-hand what my father really was and that he was back again to sweep me away from this desolate place. The wine here is bitters and the grapes have withered. Someone… anyone… take me away to a land where the wine is as sweet as the gates to heaven and the grapes hang heavy off the vine. Take me to a place where my feet and dance lightly off the ground. Save my mother from the brutality she chooses every day she stays in this place. I could see my heart pumping in my chest and the blood in my veins was not blood but wine. It poured into a chalice and it began to melt away. The gold dripped down into the darkness and a hand reached out to me. I clung to the hand in a wine induced delirium. I could feel someone carrying me, holding me safe and tight in there arms.
Author's Note: Sorry about the time on that, figuring out how to handle two characters with the same name was a bit hard and I had a bit of trouble figuring out what kind of character I wanted to make Jack for his background. Decided to develop his character around his hat's colors, blue and yellow which matches the team colors of the Michigan Wolverines. I know literally nothing about football so writing his character is gonna take a bit of research but I think he'll come out as a pretty cool dude. :)
