It was the McGee's first Thanksgiving in Brighton and they were very excited. Now that Sharon and her mother had made amends, they had invited Nin over and were expecting a relatively peaceful holiday. But Scratch, the in-home ghost was disappointed by that idea.
"Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday for a guy like me, plenty of food and relatives who don't get along gather together and that racks up misery points for me!" he explained to Molly.
"Never really thought about that, normally people expect Halloween to be a ghost's favorite holiday," replied Molly as she pulled up a photo of her and her brother Darryl from about a month ago. She was dressed as an alligator and he was dressed as Evel Knievel. Scratch unfortunately could not be seen on film otherwise he would have been seen dressed as a vampire.
"Halloween is definitely a fun night, but those Thanksgiving points really stack up!" exclaimed Scratch with a devious grin. That was when Pete came in.
"Oh, hey guys I just got off the phone with Mrs. Stein-Torres, she asked if she and Libby could have Thanksgiving here with us, I talked with, well Molly I'm saying this for your sake, Mom and she said yes. So, it looks like we'll be celebrating our first Thanksgiving in Brighton with our first Brighton friends," he said.
"That sounds great Dad!" said Molly happily. Libby was without doubt her best friend and knowing that she could celebrate the holiday with her made her bounce with joy (in her case literally).
Well, the day of Thanksgiving came, Nin came over before the parade even started to help her daughter out in the kitchen. The family wanted this to be something special. They did have a turkey and traditional stuffing, but because of Sharon and Nin's Thai ancestry, they also had some saucy stovetop Thai green beans and spring rolls. Scratch eyed the food hungrily, he always did enjoy a good meal, and he knew there would plenty to eat.
Around 2 o' clock Libby and her mother arrived carrying with them cornbread that had a few chopped-up jalapenos in it and chocolate babka. That's when the three women realized something.
"Who was supposed to bring the mashed potatoes?" they all asked in unison. Before an argument could begin in the kitchen, Pete pulled out some powdered mash potatoes packets from the pantry.
"Ladies, I am very sorry, granted this is not the traditional Irish way to cook potatoes but these will do in a pinch," he explained. It was agreed that seemed the best course of action. Meanwhile, upstairs in Molly's room the two girls were setting up a board game for the two of them to play.
"You want me to spy on her cards for you, give you an edge?" Scratch asked Molly.
"No! I most certainly-want to play as Ms. Scarlet as opposed to Mrs. Peacock, guess my inner thoughts became outer thoughts," exclaimed Molly sheepishly when she realized that Libby was able to hear her. Libby looked understandably confused, but selected to play Mrs. White. Scratch decided this was going to be boring so he drifted off to Darryl's room to see what he was up to. It turned out that he was in the middle of watching E.T. and helping himself to a small tray of nachos.
"Just a little appetizer before supper, wanna join?" asked Darryl.
"Nachos and an alien movie, well, I'd stay just for the nachos," replied Scratch as he settled himself next to Darryl. Dinner was served at 4:30 and everyone gathered happily around the wide variety of foods. Scratch, for lack of a better term drooled looking at the turkey and Molly had to make sure he didn't get close to it, while her parents distracted Libby and her mom before they could ask why Molly was doing a strange dance.
They heaped up their plates, Sharon sneaking Scratch a drumstick before joining the other humans at the dinner table. Mrs. Stein-Torres said a traditional Jewish prayer for breaking bread and then they all began to dig in.
"This is really good turkey, just melts in your mouth," said Libby at one point.
"Yeah, and this cornbread with the peppers are delicious! Got a bit of a kick though!" added Darryl before drinking some of his milk to nullify the spice.
"Thank you, it was a recipe my husband taught me, and I believe his parents handed down to him," said Mrs. Stein-Torres, she looked a little somber at that.
"I'm guessing this time of year you really miss him, believe me, I can understand that," said Nin who happened to be sitting to the right of Mrs. Stein-Torres and gently placed an arm on her shoulder. Her new friend nodded. Scratch was starting to sneak some spring rolls, but looking at the family discussing those who weren't with them anymore, he did something uncharacteristic of him. He put down the rolls he hadn't eaten yet, and went into the Ghost World. The McGee's saw him come back with the ghost form of Libby's father. The two ghosts held a finger up to their mouths in a shush signal.
"This may seem strange, but I actually feel like he's with us right now," said Mrs. Stein-Torres.
"Well in many ways, he is," replied Pete. After everyone had some good dinner, Libby volunteered to cut up the babka and everyone had a slice.
"This is delicious! I think more people should have this for dessert after a Thanksgiving meal!" exclaimed Molly.
"Yeah, it's not as heavy, which after a big meal is good," agreed Libby. The Stein-Torres then made to leave with some leftovers and thanked their hosts again.
"Thank you, and I really mean it, you've been some of the best Thanksgiving hosts we've had these past four years," said Mrs. Stein-Torres as she shook Scott, Sharon and Nin's hands. Libby and Molly hugged each other. Later Molly went to her room where she saw Scratch hanging out by his Sal Phra Phum.
"Scratch, that was a very special thing you did for the Stein-Torres' family!" she said.
"Please don't mention it, and for the record, I'm not going to make a habit of it," he answered.