what was i made for, walker

035. thanksgiving

Janie is in her bed, cuddling with Nutmeg while watching Netflix on her phone.

"Hey." Cordell walks in. Nutmeg immediately hisses at him. "Yeah, hi to you, too. Can't you, like... tell him not to do that?"

"Her." Janie corrects. "And no. You can't control who cats hiss at."

"Right." Cordell mumbles. "Uh, Thanksgiving tomorrow. All hands on deck."

"Yeah, I know. Same old, same old." Janie sighs.

"Right." Cordell says. "I gotta go to work, but I will see you later. Don't let the cat near my stuff."

"She doesn't wanna be near your stuff, I think you're good." Janie says.

+++

Janie's helping with dinner while August works on the Baked Alaska -- Stella's favorite dessert. It's part of Cordell's attempt at bribery to get her to come over for Thanksgiving.

Cordell takes a layer of cake out of the oven, putting it on a cooling rack.

"Voila, perfect!" Cordell announces.

"Can I get some more celery?" Liam asks and Cordell gets some out of the fridge, tossing it to his brother.

At some point, Cordell takes his phone out, taking a picture.

"Pretend like you're working." Cordell says, getting an annoyed look from August. Cordell snaps a picture and Janie hears the swoosh sound as he texts it, her phone buzzing from the group chat.

"It's not gonna work." Janie comments.

"Optimism, Janie Maybelle." Cordell says.

"Realism, daddy dearest. She moved out partly -- if not mostly -- because of you. And you still refuse to talk to her. It's not gonna work." Janie states.

"Hey, Augie, the ice cream needs to remain frozen, so let's hustle." Cordell says. "And the mar-ring-ga..."

"Uh, it's pronounced "meringue." Meringue." Liam says.

"Meringue. Okay. Meringue, right, of course. Sorry, chef." Cordell says. "Uh, Augie, are you getting all this?"

"Yeah, no, it's like making fancy ice cream." August says.

"No, it is not fancy ice cream, it is Baked Alaska." Liam says. "It cannot be made. It has to be built."

"Okay, "Chef."" August scoffs.

"Hey, why you talking to your uncle that way?" Liam asks his nephew.

"Cause he needs an attitude adjustment." Janie mutters under her breath.

"What?" Cordell asks, not hearing her full sentence.

"Hey, anything I can do to help?" Ben asks, walking in.

"Ben!" Cordell exclaims.

"Uh, you-- you can go back into the living room and relax, and look at the televisions and whatever for tomorrow, for Black Friday." Liam says.

"Yeah. Uh, about that... I think we got our wires crossed." Ben says. "Cass and I kinda do Black Friday on Thanksgiving. Like it starts tonight. At the mall. In person."

"I will pay you to take me with you." Janie says.

"I-- she's joking." Cordell says as the three adults chuckle.

"I'm really not." Janie says.

"It's-- that's our family tradition and I thought this was more of an early dinner than, uh..." Ben says.