In Need of Earl Grey

Chapter Three

    It's Thanksgiving and what's happening? Dad is in the kitchen burning the house down! Okay, maybe not burning the house down but whatever he's cooking can't be good.
    Seth is on my bed looking down on me. I'm on the floor lying under the slow turning fan.
    "You ever just miss her?" He asks out of the blue.
    "Mom?" I ask, "Yeah."
    "I mean it feels so long ago, but it's also like that feeling you get when you reopen a cut."
    "Where's Hannah?" I change the subject quickly. I refuse to cry. Crying is stupid, a thing immature children do. Maybe I'm stupid for not crying; I don't know. I just don't like to cry. But whenever I think about mom it hurts and I don't like it. It's easier to just ignore all the feelings.
    "She's in her room."
    "We should go see what she's doing."
    He jumps off my bed and flies down the stairs. I follow more slowly and lethargically, drawing the strings of my hoodie tight. Hannah is in her room on the floor playing with her dolls. I'm pretty sure she has over thirty.
    "Mom I'm ho-" she's saying as we open the door.
    "What are you doing?" Seth asks.
    "Picking Sarah-Lee up from the bus stop," she says matter-of-factly, "Can you two play with me please?"
    "I don't really want-" I start.
    "Please?!"
    Seth and I glances at each other.
    "Sure. Why not." So we sit on the rug and pick up random dolls. Sarah explains to us about each dolls job in the game before letting us play. All I know is there is a lot of drama; boyfriends and romances, sneaky little back stabbings, and comical backstories.
    So this time one dolls was being bullied so when she got off the bus her mom was there for her. There for her.
    "Hi mom." Hannah says.
    Would mom do that for us? What if she were here for us? For us?
    "Hi mom." More insistently.
    "Oh hi, dear." I say.
    This pointless back and forth dialogue continued for half an hour before I left for a nap. I woke an hour later to someone shaking me off of my pillow.
    "What," I mumble face down.
    "Dinner, buddy." Dad says.
    I get up and drowsily drag myself down the stairs. In the kitchen is a decently cooked turkey, beautiful Mac'n'Cheese, and red drinks that look like grape juice.
    "Dad, this looks great." I say brightening a little.
    "Hannah helped me cook most of it," He said sheepishly, "But nothing is burnt or raw, so let's eat!"
    He says grace and we chow down! I mean we. Chow. Down! Cheese and turkey grease dribble everywhere. We laugh; having a grand time. I guzzled my red juice, which turned out to be cranberry juice. We broke out a game of Uno.
    "Draw four!" Seth laughed slamming down the card.
    "Uno!" Hannah taunted.
    "Not anymore! Draw two." I say.
    We all groan as dad color changes to red.
    "Uno." He says. The door bell rings and the kitchen goes silent.
    "Be right back." Dad says. He gets up and goes to the door. A few minutes later he returns and says, "Drew you're in charge. I'll be back later this evening I've got to take care of some business."
    I look at the clock: 7:38.
    "What business? On Thanksgiving?"
    "I don't know yet." He grabs his jacket and wallet and dashes out the door, "Bye!"
    We pounce to the door just in time to see a strange lime-green Volkswagen Bug pull out of the drive way. In the window I see a flash of a pink scarf before they whip away.
    "Who's that?" Seth ask.
    "Probably someone dad works with."
    "You wish," Hannah says, like a typical girl, "See how his eyes lit up. It's a girlfriend."
    "Dad's not ready to date," I snap. By the way they looked at me I looked as crazy as I sounded. "Let's clean the kitchen, then we'll watch a movie."

    We were a third of the way through some lighthearted kids movie when my phone buzzed.

    Micah: Bruh where are you hiding?
    Me: What are you talking about?
    Micah: ur dad is here. Where r u?
    Me: At home. Where r u?
    Micah: Monitelli's it's a fancy Italian place
    Me: who's he with
    Micah: I dunno. Some cute blonde
    Me: pink scarf?
    Micah: how'd u know?
    Me: Same person picked him up from our house. He said he had to take care of business
    Micah: I don't know what business it is. But they're yakking it up.
    Me: What r u doing at a fancy Italian place?
    Micah: Just out for fancy dinner I guess. Treat. Thanksgiving tradition.
    Me: Enjoy. Ttyl