February Stars

25

November-December 1993

It was late and Jessie was exhausted. She's spent Thanksgiving at home with her parents in South Carolina, having traveled eight hours by bus both ways. It was a torturous trip and she wished her parents would splurge and buy her a plane ticket once in a while. She let herself into her apartment building and stopped at her mailbox, unlocking it and emptying her mail into her arms. She then slowly and tiredly climbed the three flights of stairs up to her apartment, dragging her suitcase behind her. She unlocked the door and kicked it open, dropping her bag in the middle of the floor and dumping the mail on the kitchen table. She made the short journey to her bed and collapsed onto it, pulling the covers around her, not even bother to take her clothes off.

The next day, she woke up and readied for school. She was probably the only student on the whole Georgetown campus who was looking forward to returning to class after the Thanksgiving break. After she'd returned from her conference with her award, the Journalism program's faculty had started to show real interest in her and several had asked her to consider becoming their teaching assistant next semester. She was thrilled, as this would satisfy the teaching hours she needed to obtain her Master's Degree. It was just what she and Dave had talked about; she was writing her own ticket.

Since she'd returned from New York, she and Dave had spoken once by phone, briefly and had kept it light and friendly. Jess still had mixed feelings about letting him into her life, her heart very much still belonging to him.

When she returned home from school around dinner time, she saw the little light on her answering machine blinking. She hit play and waited for the tape to rewind. Dave's voice streamed out of the little speaker.

“Hey, Jessie, it's Dave. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with your family. Just checking to make sure you got home safe. I will try you again later. And, oh! Check your mail. Ok, love you… I mean, uh, bye.”

Jessie winced at the words I love you, but couldn't resist rewinding and playing back the message.

“Love you… I mean, uh, bye.” Rewind. “Love you… I mean, uh, bye.” She sighed.

“I love you, too, Dave,” she whispered then deleted the message. She walked over to her kitchen table and picked up the stack of mail and flipped through it, looking for Dave's familiar hand writing. She spotted an envelope and saw that it was post marked in Seattle. She smiled and slid her finger underneath the flap, opening it. Inside there was a piece of paper folded in thirds. She unfolded it and smoothed it out on the table and laughed. It appeared as if Dave had traced his hand and turned it into a turkey, something she'd done in kindergarten. He'd made the fingers into feathers and had drawn a small face on the thumb.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Jessie!” it read. Underneath, along the bottom of the page, he'd written a quick note as well. “Jessica, this Thanksgiving, the thing I am most thankful for is your friendship. It makes me happy to have you in my life. I hope we will always be friends. -D.”