Vestige | The Society

Twenty-Four | Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving | Part. 1Hope?

Everyone sat in the church, listening to Helena. Alex laugh as Sylver whispered something to her. the two curled up together, waiting for it to begin. Helena stood at the front preparing. "Hi, everyone. Uh, thank you for coming to Thanksgiving Services. I just wanted to remind everyone that cooking starts at 11am in the Cafeteria, and touch football Kicks off at 3pm on the green. What a nice day it's going to be right?" She asked. silence. Most people would have agreed, if it weren't the first Thanksgiving that they would spend without family. Alex wouldn't be spending it with her father. And she felt guilty about it. Every year had been awkward between them, Alex blaming her dad for Merina's death. "Maybe not, I don't know. Who cares about food and football when we have no idea what happened to our families. To us for that matter. I mean what is there to be thankful for when everything feels like..." Helena trailed off. Trying to find the right words to say. Knowing everyone in that room was fragile.

"Like Prison," Luke piped up to add in. Helena nodded her head, agreeing with him. They were stuck somewhere alone. Teenagers trapped in a barren world, as far as they knew. So, why wouldn't it feel like a prison. However, there would be no escape attempts yet. As they tried to figure out the systems of this prison.

"Like prison. we're trapped here and we do only mundane things. Making it from today to tomorrow. and tomorrow is not likely to be any different. That feels a lot like prison. But ,my guess is, by the time it finally came for each of us to die... maybe one in a hundred of us would have made any difference being born. But here, every one of us matters. Think about it. If were to loose a single person in this room, we would all feel it tomorrow. And I don't mean just in our heats. I mean the food wouldn't be cooked, the trash wouldn't be collected, the streets wouldn't be safe. Loose to many of us and we might not eat at all. Our lives have consequences. Everyone in our entire universe matters to everyone else.  And we can still love. So, I am thankful, today, for everyone of you. And I am happy to be alive and to matter," She finished. All of us smiled. This speech threading a sense of importance to everyone who felt worthless. 

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Everyone had prepared for the night. From cooking food, to sports, to spending time together. The sense of community was strong among everyone. They stood outside, waiting for Allie to talk to them all. Every person was wrapped in a warm coat. The weather having not stopped since they arrived in a weird place. Sylver had an arm wrapped around Alexandrea's shoulder as she nestled into his side for extra warmth. 

"Okay, so the final score is... Luke's Roman's, 36. Clarks Guards, 42!" Everyone Cheered, Clark seemingly the happiest out everyone. Luke looking very defeated. 

"Whoo! Yeah! That's right! I would like to give props to Andrea! Now I understand why you hang out with us," Alexandrea laughed at him, shaking her head slightly at the wild boy. "Everyone loves my big D," Alex and Sylver shared a look. Not knowing where Clark came up with things like that. But then again, neither were surprised that he said that.

"Thank you, Clark, for being such a gracious winner. I hope that you are all hunger, because there's a big Thanksgiving dinner inside the church, thanks to Will. And to all of you. First something we have been waiting for, for a long time. The committee on going home has a, report,"

"Okay so as you know, we've been working hard to figure out four essential things: Where we are? How we got here? Why we're here? and how to get back? For the first question there have been two hypotheses on the table. This is Erath, and everything else is gone. Or Earth exists, and we're someplace else." Alex looked at Sylver to see him looking down at his feet. She gave his hand a squeeze and gave him a small his on his cheek. He turned to her with a small, happy that he at least got to spend Thanksgiving with her. Usually he'd spend the day taking care of his two brothers while their mum and dad prepared the dinner. He was happy to at least be spending it with someone he loved. "So, I think today we have an answer,"

"If you remember, ten days after what happened, there was a solar eclipse. At the time we told you it was a scheduled astronomical event. But after looking at some almanacs, we realise we were wrong. The net total solar eclipse, in North America, is not until 2024,"Bean explained. Everyone getting even more confused. No one really understanding what the two were trying to get across. 

"so we've travelled forward in time?"

"That's what I thought at first, but I don't think so now. Um, if you look up, you'll see Orion's Belt and the Big Dipper. All the things you're supposed to see over the northern hemisphere. But if you step up and take a peak in my old Celestron AstroMaster, you'll see the star Betelgeuse. Except Betelgeuse isn't where it's supposed to be. It's a few degrees off. And if you look close r, you'll notice that there are no moving objects between us and the moon. Which means somehow all of our satellites have disappeared." 

"Fucking hell," Alexandrea sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. She went through an entire phase of being obsessed with space and physics. Making her realise the weight of the situation. They weren't in the future. They were on another earth, in another universe or something. Because everything he had described would be impossible in terms of physics. Betelgeuse being off was... confusing.

"What does that even mean?" Jason asked. Everyone else was stumped. Wondering what that meant for them, for their world and their home. 

"Well, I think it means that this world isn't our own. it's like a parallel universe. Almost exactly like our, but not quite. People began to go up, peering through the telescope. All of them had thought about it at least once. But none of them had expected it to actually happen. None of them wanting to admit that they were no where near their families. And to hear it on Thanksgiving was even harder.

"Okay," Allie said, "I know that sounds, scary. But we all knew that the answer was going to be weird. I kind of think it's actually kind of hopeful,"

"And how do figure that?" Lexi asked. Alex rolled her eyes, yet again, at the infuriating girl. 

"'Cause, if this isn't our Earth then it means that everything we love and miss... is still there. Our parents are still alive they're just someplace else. And we will work out how to get back to them. We will. I mean, if we went in the one direction to get here, there's got to be a way to get back, doors work both ways. I really feel like we've just been given some hope. It also means that this place really is a new world. And that we really, as far as we know, are it's first real people. And this is it's first Thanksgiving. Held in year one in our temporary home of New Ham. Which is now it's official name. Okay, let's go eat!" Everyone cheered. Alex grinned at Allie, shocked how the girl could make such a dark situation seem a little lighter. And it did give them hope. Hope that one day, they would see their family again. That they would be able to go home and spend many more Thanksgivings with their parent. For Alexandrea, it gave her hope of reconciliation with her father. And a new Era of their relationship. And that's she'd find her way home, with a new boyfriend who she loved, her best friend Grizz, and a happier outlook on life as a hole. Hope felt like a push into the light for her.