Happy Thanksgiving!
"Dad, can I go to Mariana's house for Thanksgiving?" Sarah Meechum asked her dad.
Peter Meechum looked up startled. "What?"
"Mariana said I can come over for Thanksgiving. Can I?" Sarah asked again.
"But we usually have Thanksgiving at Providence every year." Peter said.
"Yeah, I don't really want to go this year. It's boring." Sarah complained.
Peter was about to protest but then realized that Sarah was always around Providence soldiers or scientists. The youngest person in Providence was Rex. Although Rex was nice to her, he didn't spend all his time with her. He didn't blame her for not wanting to go with him. He spent most of his time working anyway on Thanksgiving.
"Sure. You can go to Mariana's." He agreed.
"Yay!" She squealed. She jumped up from her seat and hugged her father before running to her room to call her friend.
Peter felt a pang of loss.
0o0
"Hey, Pete!" Rylander waved from his glass tube. "Where's the little princess.?"
Peter glared at his colleague and was about to make a snappy retort. He then realized that it wasn't his friend's fault that his daughter was growing distant from him.
"She's with a friend." He answered.
"Oh really? She's growing up so fast." Rylander paused before asking again. "It's not a boy, right?"
"No! Of course not! Don't be ridiculous.!" Peter roared.
"Just wondering." Rylander held his hands up in surrender.
Peter grumbled as he stormed off.
"Don't forget to get to the cafeteria early or they'll run out of turkey like last year." Rylander called out to him.
Peter went into his office. He slumped into his chair. He rubbed his face tiredly. As he glanced over at his desk his eyes fell on a picture of him with a young Sarah. He picked it up and smiled as he remembered the time when she was young.
Rylander's voice echoed in his head. "She's growing up so fast."
He set down the picture and got up. He had spent too many years leaving Sarah alone. She had no other family but him, yet he spent too much time away from her. And soon she will be all grown up and leaving him.
0o0
Sarah sat fascinated at the scene in front of her. Mariana's two uncles were drunkenly yelling at each other. Another man was trying to calm them down. A woman was crying. Two kids were running around the room bumping into things and knocking things over. Mariana was calmly eating her food.
Sarah turned to her. "Is it like this every year?"
"Yup." Mariana replied.
"Woah." Sarah turned back in time to see mash potato being thrown. "But the game will be on soon so they'll stop."
"Aww." Sarah was disappointed.
"But then they'll start fighting about the game." Mariana explained.
"Cool." Sarah brightened.
The doorbell rang. A tired looking woman got up. A few minutes later she returned with a man dressed in a suit.
"Sarah, your father is here to pick you up." She looked relieved.
"Already?" Sarah wanted to see the fight.
"Sarah, I think we should go. We shouldn't bother these nice…" He glanced at the chaos at the dining room table. "people any longer."
"Ok, dad. Thank you for dinner, ma'am." She said to Mariana's mom politely.
"Anytime, Sarah." Mariana's mom smiled patting her head.
"Bye Mariana, see you on Monday." Sarah said to her friend.
She waved and went back to her dinner.
Peter and Sarah walked out. Sarah stopped when she saw the jump jet.
"You came to get me in the jump jet?" Sarah asked shocked.
"Uh, well…" Peter started nervously.
Bobo's head popped up from the cockpit. "Hey squirt, your old man missed you and begged me to come pick you up."
"Are we going back to Providence?" Sarah asked.
"No, we're going to start our own Thanksgiving tradition." Peter said firmly.
An hour later they sat in their living room, surrounded by take-out containers.
"So this is our new tradition?" Sarah asked.
"Well, this is the only place opened today at this hour." Peter said apologetically.
"No, this is cool. I never liked turkey." Sarah said happily.
"Me neither. It's always too dry." Bobo said from the kitchen.
"Hey, I said you could stay if you're quiet." Peter snapped.
"Geez, just making conversation, old crank." Bobo grumbled.
Peter fumed as Sarah giggled.
"It's ok dad. I think this is the best Thanksgiving ever." Sarah said.
"This is just a start. From now on we'll have the best Thanksgiving ever every year." Peter promised.
"Can we invite Rex next time?" Sarah asked innocently.
"We'll see, honey." He grit his teeth. "We'll see."
Happy Thanksgiving all. May you spend the day eating into a stupor.