Childhood Crushes

Chapter Fifty-Two - Happy Thanksgiving

Morning came quicker than I had hoped. My dream was very good last night; I dreamt of the night Bale and I went to that party in summer. We were dancing under the full moon, along to country songs that soon became 'our songs'. I was replaying memories of wonderful times - times I would treasure for the rest of my life, and times that I probably never would forget. I wondered why I wasn't smiling when I woke up; instead, I was crying. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I remembered the good times, but now they seemed so far away. Every day is a new fight now, and about things that just don't matter. I wondered if we were growing apart, if Bale still loved me, and even worse - I wondered if...I still loved him.

Of course you still love him, I scolded myself. My hand shot up and gripped gently at the small pearl hanging from my neck, as if it was our relationship and I was holding on tight. You love him, and he loves you, too.

Was it true though; were we growing apart, like Momma and Daddy? They had grown apart, and now both of them were much happier on their own. Daddy had dates sometimes, and Momma had Hecter. They were a memory, nothing more. Was Bale supposed to be my memory? Was I supposed to be his? We had only been engaged for a couple months and we were already beginning to argue about everything.

After an hour of deep thought, I forced myself to stand up from my bed and walk to the shower. Today was Thanksgiving; I couldn't just sit around in my room and mope. Bale would be here tonight; then we could talk this over. We could smooth everything out and make up. I would go back to college in a couple days and then...then...time would tell.

My shower lasted longer than I had thought. After about an hour, I got out of the shower and toweled my hair before pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, walked downstairs, and found Daddy standing in the kitchen with a woman with wild, curly red hair and big blue eyes that seemed to scream her emotions. Despite her wild appearance, she seemed to be having a good time.

When she realized someone had walked into the kitchen, she looked up and smiled, "Good morning! You must be Annabelle; your Daddy's been goin' on and on about you!" After wiping her slimy hand - due to handling food - on her apron tied to her front, she stuck it out and shook my own hand. "I'm Ruby, it's nice to meet you."

"Hi, Ruby," I replied politely, "it's nice to meet you, too."

With that, she gave me one last smile and turned back to the food. It may have been morning, but the two of them were going at it like dinner was in five minutes. Every burner on the stove was doing something, all the shelves in the oven were being used, and every inch of the counter was covered in some kind of food. Thinking it best to leave them to their work, I went to go find the table cloth in the linen closet. It took me a long time to find all the matching cloth napkins; the orange ones with small turkeys all over them, just like the table cloth. Daddy and the boys never seemed to organize anything around here. It truly was a house made for men.

When I picked up the cloths I saw several stains and crumbs. Knowing I would regret it later, I held up the material and sniffed. As I expected, I began coughing from the stench. It smelled like rotten food and didn't look too hot.

"Daddy, when was the last time you washed this stuff?" I demanded across the house.

"Uhh...define 'wash'," he replied.

With a rolled of my eyes I stood up, closed the closet doors, and took the table dressings straight to the laundry room where I threw them in the washing machine and added some fabric softener and detergent. The sound of the water sloshing around, totally man-handling the material, filled the small room. I leaned against the washer and took in a deep breath. It was then that I realized this was the first Thanksgiving dinner I'd be having with Daddy since I was little. Suddenly it hit me; that's why he was making the dinner himself - that's why he was making so much of it - that's why he was trying so hard to make this as perfect as possible. I smiled to myself and peered out the door of the laundry room to see Daddy leaning against the counter. Though he was looking down, and he was slightly far off, I could still see the serious expression on his face and how he concentrated on what he was doing. While Ruby occasionally looked to the TV to watch the parade, Daddy never once removed his eyes from whatever he was doing.