The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know

What am I thankful for?

What am I thankful for?

Thanksgiving arrived at Kale University, meaning that the students who lived nearby went home for the long weekend, the students who lived far away stayed at Kale, and the international students were confused as to what all of the fuss was about. Since my closest family lived on the other side of the continent and I didn't have enough time or money to go home, I was stuck at Kale. It wasn't such a bad thing - if I had to be stuck anywhere, Kale was where I would want to be - but I did miss my mother.

I had neglected to call her as often as I had promised, since I was so busy with both work and school, so I talked to her for quite a while a few days before Thanksgiving. I somehow managed to avoid mentioning Brendon, the Aubergine, or my fight with Patrick as I told her about all of the wonders of Kale. However, she did ask me one tough question.

"Ryan, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" Mom asked.

As a matter of fact, I didn't have Thanksgiving plans. The Aubergine was closed for the day, so I figured that I would spend Thanksgiving in my dorm room, eating leftover pizza and wallowing in my own loneliness. "I don't know yet," I told Mom. "I'll figure something out."

"Please do," Mom said. "I don't want to think about my son spending Thanksgiving all alone."

"What about you, Mom?" I asked. "What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"I'm inviting a few of our neighbors over," Mom said. "I'll miss you though, Ryan."

"I'll miss you too, Mom," I said.

"Well Ryan, I should probably go run some errands," Mom said. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Mom," I said. I then hung up and stared up at the ceiling. Patrick was packing up his belongings, since even he was heading home for the weekend. "You know, Patrick, Chicago is so two years ago," I said. He glared at me and continued packing.

What would I do for Thanksgiving? I had so many wonderful friends at Kale, but they were all going home. I didn't want to be alone, even though there didn't seem to be another option. What else could I do? How could I avoid being lonely when everyone was abandoning me?

I took out my phone and logged into my Kale email account. I saw that I had an email from Andy Hurley, so I opened it.

To: rross21@kale.edu, hwilliams21@kale.edu, lsong21@kale.edu, pstump21@kale.edu, jtrohman21@kale.edu, and 219 others

From: ahurley21@kale.edu

Subject: Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

I am aware that many of us (including me) will not be able to return home this Thanksgiving, so I would like to have a Thanksgiving celebration here at Flack Hall. We will be celebrating in the Flack Hall basement starting at 6:00 PM, but we will be preparing food all day - please help if you can!

Please reply to this email to let me know if you are coming. If you are coming, please send ideas for (vegan) foods that we can make and let me know if you are bringing someone who does not live in Flack Hall (freshmen living in the Freshmen Quad, upperclassmen, and friends from other schools are all welcome!)

Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving!

Andy Hurley

Before I could finish typing out a reply, a number of other students living in Flack Hall responded to Andy's email.

To: ahurley21@kale.edu

From: pstump21@kale.edu

Cc: rross21@kale.edu