The VLC - Adelaide

Thanksgiving

In the morning my grandmother had pancakes and bacon hot and ready after I got out of the shower. I loved their home in the woods. Being there brought back so many wonderful memories from childhood. Brody and I spent days riding around on the go cart through the trails. We went up there for almost every holiday every year. I forgot for a moment that I was a fourteen year old girl, angry with her parents, and went back to being the ten year old running around happily all day. Even Brody seemed congenial that morning. He offered me another slice of bacon as he grabbed some for himself, and he hadn't even liked it. My parents were the last to join us. They seemed rejuvenated. It had been a really long night. We had to fly out of LAX because the price was so much better. It was a zoo. Everyone was leaving for the holiday weekend.

"Good morning Brody," My mother leaned over and kissed him on the head, messing his hair up after.

"Mom! Stop treating me like I am five." He squealed.

"Good morning Addy." She smiled at me as though she hadn't been chewing me out less than twenty-four hours earlier.

"Did you two sleep okay?" My dad asked as he sat down at the table.

"Sure." I said, the nostalgia wore off and I returned to the present.

"Well, be sure to relax today because tomorrow the house will be filled with family." I had forgotten that my mom's sister and my cousins would be over the next day. Mary and Max were only six and eight years old. I enjoyed playing with them, but they were exhausting. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to have them run their energy off outside because it looked like it would be yet another drizzly blustery northwest day.

We finished up breakfast, my mom talking to my grandma about life and how things were going now that we lived in California. My dad tried to have a conversation with my grandpa about work, but my dad was a businessman, and my grandpa didn't quite relate to that. Brody ran off to play computer games (game consoles were not something my grandparents would spend money on) as soon as he finished eating.

"Hey, Brody, you should at least clear your plate." My mom yelled after him. "Addy, grab these dishes and help me clean up." I grumbled and thought about mentioning the favoritism, not to mention sexism with clearly biased gender roles sprinkled in, when she asked me, but did not attempt to get Brody back in to help, and then I decided it wasn't worth the fight.

We were relatively silent as we washed up. My grandmother seemed to notice, "So Adelaide, tell me how things have been going for you."

"Fine, I guess." I said unenthusiastically while scrubbing the frying pan.

"Come on," She bumped me with her hip. "You don't have any stories about new friends?"

"Well, I have made a few new friends." My mom was pretending not to listen as she wiped down the counters. My grandma dried the pan after I finished rinsing it off. I looked out her kitchen window. It was draped with white and yellow curtains and looked out over their expansive, well-manicured lawn. I wished it was a sunny spring afternoon of the past and not an ugly winter day.

"Tell me about them." She drew me back again from my reverie.

"Um, there are three girls that I have become really close to. We all met in English class."

"Oh, have you made any new friends at church?" Of course she would ask this question, I thought.

"Not really, everyone there seems to have established circles of friends. There are some people I like, but we don't really hang out." She nodded as I said this.

"Well I am sure they will come around." I rinsed the last dish and handed it to my grandma, releasing the stopper in the sink. She did have a dishwasher, but my grandmother believed that washing dishes was an important family activity. Her theory was that if your hands were busy it would allow your mind to be free to contemplate and that provided for more conversation. I don't think I was helping her cause with my clipped responses.