The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

Author:Kristin Levine
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Published: 2011-04-07T21:00:00+00:00

30

THANKSGIVING

THE NEXT DAY WAS THANKSGIVING, AND Mama woke us all before dawn. There was a lot to do if we were gonna eat at noon. Why we had to eat at noon was beyond me, but you didn’t argue with Mama, especially on a holiday.

While Mama and the girls were busy cooking the turkey, shelling peas and baking pies, Pa and us boys scrubbed the floors and washed the windows, in addition to all the normal chores like chopping wood and milking the cows. Even little Robert and Lois helped Mama get out the good tablecloth and set the table. We usually ate in shifts, but on holidays Pa moved the card table from the parlor into the dining room and we all squeezed in together.

Right in the middle of the turkey, Pa asked if anyone had anything they were thankful for. Della gushed on and on ’bout Mr. Fulton’s boy and how he was gonna ask for her hand any day now. Ollie liked the new dress she’d got for her birthday, Ulman was grateful for Mama’s mashed potatoes, Elman was thrilled he hadn’t failed his math test and Raymond was thankful for the pumpkin pie he could smell in the kitchen.

Finally, it was my turn. I cleared my throat, just like Mrs. Seay did when she was trying to make sure everyone was listening. “I’m thankful for my new job.”

“You got a job?” said Pa. He sounded surprised, and I thought a little proud too. “Doing what?”

“Driving Dr. Griffith into Selma. He’s got to go once a month to pick up supplies.”

“Driving?” said Elman. “Dit don’t know how to drive.”

“I do now,” I said. “Dr. Griffith taught me.”

“Why’d he do that?” said Raymond. “Could have just asked one of us.”

I’d wondered the same thing myself. “Guess he likes me better.”

Raymond threw a pat of butter at me.

“Boys!” Mama said sharply. “This is my good tablecloth!”

Pa shook his head. “So my boy knows how to drive. Well, I’ll be—”

But just when he was about to say something nice (or at least I think he was), Robert decided to imitate Raymond and throw a pat of butter. Only he knocked over his glass of milk instead. It spilled all over the tablecloth. Mama started wailing, so Ollie jumped up to get a towel, but she ran into Della, who’d had the same idea, and they knocked over a chair. Then Pearl reached for a drumstick and tipped over the green beans, and Earl started whining ’cause he wanted a drumstick and there weren’t no more left, and the subject of me driving didn’t come up again.

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