Flying Without a Net by E.M. Ben Shaul

Author:E.M. Ben Shaul [Shaul, E.M. Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Gay, gay romance, Jewish, Lgbt, Multicultural, Orthodox, Romance/Contemporary;Romance/Gay
ISBN: 9781945053122
Publisher: Interlude Press
Published: 2016-11-06T23:53:17+00:00

9

Plenty to Be Thankful For

Dani loved Thanksgiving. There was just so much about the holiday that made him happy—good food, spending time with family, the acknowledgment that winter is coming. And this year there was something else: he was going to share his favorite secular holiday with Avi.

Thanksgiving was odd in his parents’ house. Both of Dani’s parents had moved to Israel as children—part of the aliyah wave of the early fifties—so they considered themselves more Israeli than American. But as immigrants, they embraced the quintessentially American observance of Thanksgiving as a way to celebrate the country they’d chosen. So Thanksgiving in Dani’s parents’ home, for as long as Dani could remember, involved turkey and stuffing and all the traditional Thanksgiving foods—the ones that weren’t blatantly non-kosher; while the Perezes had never kept kosher, certain foods were never brought into the house. And any and all relatives who happened to be in the area were invited.

After the meal, which always began right around three, everyone sat in the living room with a fire blazing. Various traditions had sprung up over the years—card games were played by uncles and cousins and anyone else who wished to join; the relatives who did handcrafts would knit or crochet or whatever while catching up on family gossip; Dani and Dudu usually played guitar or piano to entertain the masses. The specific rituals varied, depending on the makeup of the crowd, but the spirit of togetherness and thanksgiving was ever-present.

Any year that a dati family member was expected be in town, accommodations were made for them. So Avi’s joining the Perezes wasn’t any extra burden, just a question of logistics. Dani’s parents had a number of dati friends in the neighborhood, and one or another was always willing to let them use their kitchen. Since Dani’s cousin Batya had moved to Allston the previous May and she was dati, Dani’s mother had asked if she’d be willing to donate her kitchen to the cause. Batya agreed, so the Sunday before Thanksgiving had found Dani’s parents, Dani, and Dudu gathered in Batya’s small, but serviceable, kitchen to review exactly who would cook what and when. Batya had been willing to make her kitchen available every evening for cooking, refrigerators had been cleared out to accommodate all the food being prepared, and the Perezes’ dati neighbors had given Dani’s parents a key to their house so they could heat up everything on Thursday, since the neighbors were spending Thanksgiving with their kids in western Massachusetts.

Yes, everyone cooked. Penina Perez firmly believed that her boys should not leave home without basic life skills, so they’d learned to cook. And for Thanksgiving, everyone pitched in, and each of them had their specialties. And by the end of Sunday afternoon, they had a plan for preparing their traditional Thanksgiving dinner in a way that Avi would be able to enjoy.

Each night that week, when Dani spoke to Avi, after regaling him with the latest progress on the cooking, he tried to reassure him about the upcoming gathering.

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