Thanks-Living
By JPYoung
Long ago…
It was the time of transition…the juncture between autumn’s end, when the trees shed the last of their red, yellow and orange leaves, and winter’s eve, where morning frosts segued into snow flurries. The city was quieter due to the absence of the birds who fled South...yet it wasn’t winter’s total silence...The atmosphere verged on, but was not quite, bleak.
Scampering squirrels built their nests, bears in the woods hibernated and the locals warmly hunkered down around their black-and-white televisions savouring soothing hot chocolate.
The evening light wasn’t fading…it was dying…The funereal streets were deserted, for today was Thanksgiving, the holiday of the transition.
Thanksgiving Day was an American legal holiday observed on the fourth Thursday in November, meaning a day off work or two days free from school. The day was celebrated with a massive roast turkey lunch or dinner with your loved ones. It was also the countdown to the next holiday, Snow White Christmas.
This Thanksgiving was different for the Down and Outers…
Joey’s girlfriend Connie had an early Thanksgiving lunch with him and his mother, as Stash’s girlfriend Betty with his family; Karen, the other nurse of the trio, lunched with Angie and her parents. All three nurses had to be back before 3 p.m. to begin their shifts.
Karen broke down crying; Angie’s parents arranged a telephone call with her family downstate.
The twilight streetcar containing Angie, Joey and his mother travelled sedately up the silent North Avenue. They’d been invited to an evening soiree hosted by Peter and Katrina at Mrs. Donnelly house, where they lived. Joey’s mother knew Mrs. Donnelly from her widow’s group.
It was also a ‘welcome home’ to the couple who recently returned from Germany where they testified in a successful trial of an abduction ring.
Mrs. Donnelly’s house was cosy and warm with a most welcome log fire. Peter took the visitor’s coats as Katrina served hot apple cider mulled with cinnamon and nutmeg with homemade cookies and warm pretzels.
In addition to their hosts, the other visitors were there, Ray, Stash, Miss McGillicuddy and her de facto adopted son Maynor. Maynor was a victim of hypertrichosis that gave him excessive facial hair growth, making him resemble the wolf man. That and his mental condition that made him a permanent well-behaved child, led him to rarely leave his home. Once you were familiar with him, he was warm and marvelous company.
‘Chiichi!’
‘That’s Yucatec for “grandma”, both of Maynor’s grandmothers are here today’. Miss Mac explained.
Maynor ran to Joey’s mother to give her a hug, then did the same to Mrs. Donnelly.
Everyone enthusiastically greeted each other, though the Down and Outers had been together less than 24 hours ago.
‘Absence makes the heart go Henry Fonda’, Joey said in an impression of the actor’s voice.
The boys laughed, the ladies smiled politely, Angie recalled Karen’s remark about the Down and Outers,
‘They’re the living personification of the phrase “fool around.”’
Maynor enthused,
‘Young Mr. Lincoln!’
‘We watched that movie together’, Joey explained.
‘Our 16th President freed the slaves, and he was a wrestler too!’
‘Real good, Maynor! Yuh sure know your history!’, Angie smiled.
‘I never knew Lincoln was a wrestler!’, Katrina commented.
Peter nodded and quoted,
‘”C’mon in an’ whet your horns!”’
Ray had the relaxed look of a millionaire in his own mansion.
‘One of the many distinctive things about Ray is that you don’t have to tell him to make himself at home.’
‘That’s because I feel at home with you and Katrina, and Mrs. Donnelly. I can’t say that about other people or other places.’
‘I feel at home here too, Mrs. Donnelly. Thank you very much for having us.’
‘It’s truly a pleasure, Joey. After my husband passed away, this great big house was dead. I took in a boarder, Peter, and things came back to life. It’s a large house that’s now a home with Katrina and Peter here. I haven’t been happier since…I don’t know how long…That’s what Thanksgiving’s all about. Showing gratitude.’
Stash proclaimed, ‘Aesop said, ”Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."’
‘Aesop of the Fables, Mother?’
‘That’s right, Maynor!’, Miss Mac beamed.
‘It’s wonderful seeing yuh again, Maynor!’
‘Big fun, Angie! I enjoyed the Monopoly game we played!’
‘Yuh beat the pants off us! You’re gonna be a bigtime property owner someday!’
‘How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?’
They went around the room telling of turkey banquets with loved ones at their tables and the things they were thankful for, for gratitude was everything.
The last one to speak was a pensive Stash.
His account was so vivid that everyone found themselves going back in time and space to witness the events he related…
‘Why are you wasting your time with a deadbeat like our son?! Cancha do better, Betty?’
Betty repeated his last sentence as she drummed on the table,
‘I love his rhythm, Mr. Staskiewicz.’
After continually pestering her boyfriend Stanley/Stanislaus ‘Stash’ Staskiewicz to meet his parents, and having Thanksgiving off until her 3 p.m. start, Betty discovered Aesop's Fables were right again; ‘Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.’
‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you! Stan’s a failure.’
‘I’ll keep him after class, Mrs. Staskiewicz; maybe I’ll send him to my summer school.’
Stash guffawed.
‘You sound just like his smart aleck loser friends. That punk and a half Ray-‘
‘And he’s too old to be a punk!’
‘That’s why he’s so good at it, Mrs. Staskiewicz…he has seniority.’
‘-Ray ran out on a great job and his wife to be a Bowery Play-Boy back here, and that Goofball Joey’s a retard!’
Stash shouted,
‘You can say what you want about me, but don’t badmouth my friends behind their back!’
‘OK, I’ll take it back about Joey. He was born stupid and can’t help it, but Ray threw his life away…like you did! We paid for your college education, and you left a federal government career to come back here!’
‘I hated every minute of it, and I’m paying you back for my university tuition out of my wages’…Betty looked at Stash with questioning eyes, he nodded, ‘…so shut up, already.’
‘Don’t tell your father to shut up!’
‘I’m paying him back, and he’s still complaining.’
‘I’ll be dead and gone by the time YOU pay me in full out of your salary.’
‘We don’t want the money. We want you to be a success.’
‘I am a success, Mom. I’ve got a steady job, a nice place to live, the best friends I ever had and the love of my life. You just want me to support you when you’re old.’
‘That’s what’s called “family obligation”, Dupa!’
‘Your father works hard at the factory! He never had the chance that you did, and you left your career to be one of the Three Stooges!’
‘I just wasn’t cut out for it; I like my job here. Like Ray says, “you never dread going to work here”.’
‘Stan’s happy. He wasn’t in his Civil Service job, and neither was Ray in Bismarck; he told me he and his wife weren’t happy.’
‘You don’t get married to be happy, Betty.’
Stash’s mother glared at Betty, not her husband.
‘That’s news to me, Mr. Staskiewicz.’
‘You get married to make a family, and once you have a family you make them safe and secure. You think marriage is a big joke…’
‘Until someone loses an eye…’, Betty replied.
Stash howled; his parent’s eyes widened, and their teeth clenched.
Mrs. Staskiewicz went on a new tangent,
‘We thought you’d find a Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestant woman in college and the civil service, but none of them would marry a bum like you now. That’s why your WASP girlfriend became a nurse. To marry a rich doctor!’
A worried Stash looked at Betty, because she was proud of being a nurse…
Betty chortled,
‘It’s the other way around, Mrs. Staskiewicz. Men only become doctors to marry sexy nurses like me! I’m The Wasp Woman! Just like that movie at the North Star! I’ll put on my black leotards and take you away! Zzzzzzz!!!’
Stash resumed his laughter,
‘And I’ll be the Beast from Haunted Cave! We’ll honeymoon there!’
‘Get out of our house!!!’
‘So, we caught the streetcar downtown and found a place that was open, then I rode with Betty to her apartment, then I walked here…Maybe my parents are right…I’m just squeaking by.’
‘Who said "To thine own self be true"?’
‘Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ray.’
‘Truer words were never spoken. When I lived in Bismarck, I was somebody else who I hated, and when you hate yourself, nobody can love you.’
‘If you can’t be yourself, then who’s gonna be?’, Joey added.
‘It’s no fun without you, Stash!’
All agreed with Maynor.
‘You just threw away your potential, Ray. I threw away my parents’ money!’
‘You don’t need them to beat you up; you’re doing it yourself.’
‘You’re payin’ um back! Whudder they beefin’ about?’, Angie shouted.
Maynor made cow noises; everyone laughed.
Mrs. Donnelly answered the telephone,
‘Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Yes, he’s here, Betty.’
She gave the telephone to Stash,
‘I love you too, Betty. Yeah, it was like an episode of Dragnet, wasn’t it? I’m with the gang, everyone talked about their Thanksgiving and what they were most grateful for, and I was just about to say “you”. I’m fine, OK, love you too, all the gang says “Hi” I’ll bet the patients are grateful for you being with them today…Joey says “Hi” to Connie…Yeah, I can’t wait…Bye!’
‘Not that we’re eavesdropping, but what can’t you wait for?’
‘I’ll be staying with Betty’s family downstate for Christmas, Ray.’
‘I’m doing the same with Connie’s family! We’re all taking the same train downstate together!’, Joey glowed.
They told each other their Christmas plans.
Ray and his parents would spend Christmas together, as always. Peter, Mrs. Donnelly and Katrina would be spending Christmas with Katrina’s family in Chicago, Angie related her family were going to Sunny California to be with her brother Dean the Marine at Camp Pendleton, with a trip to Disneyland. Joey’s uncle and aunt would stay over Christmastide in his room,
Ray mournfully observed,
‘Everyone’s going different places for Christmas…’
Miss Mac invited everyone to a St. Nicholas Day party at her home.
‘Connie and Betty’ll be working days, so they can come too!’, Stash smiled.
Mrs. Donnelly sat behind her piano,
‘It’s time to sing! What shall we sing first?’
Joey began and everyone joined in,
‘Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go…’
FIN
Author Notes: Happy Thanksgiving!
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