I read this in class Tuesday but it wasn't quite finished, so here's the completed story:


A Thanksgiving Memory

by Connie Wolf

Connie woke to the sound of rain, it had rained all night and she slept better than she had in months. She had a theory. Burglars, rapists, and assorted deviants never worked on rainy nights, why would they? They didn’t punch a time clock, they made their own hours. She felt safe on rainy nights and slept through the night curled into one little corner of her king-sized bed. As she squinted at the clock, feeling for her glasses, she remembered why no alarm clock rang, today was Thanksgiving. A no work, no school day lay before them, a day unplanned, unstructured, the most non-traditional of Thanksgivings. It was their first Thanksgiving since the divorce, no family lived in California it would be just the two of them. She felt the depression materializing around her, like the grey smog that so often hide the California foothills, poisonous, insidious and potentially deadly, there was only one way to defeat it, hit the floor running. Catching a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror, she grimaced, her dark hair stuck straight up at the crown and lay in ragged edges on her neck , this payday for sure, she had to get a haircut; she skipped it the last two paydays, trying to save every penny for today. They were not going to eat Swanson’s TV dinners in front of the television set, not today. They were going to Denny’s. This was the 1970s and Denny’s slogan was, “We’re always open”. Every place else was closed, this was a stay-at-home family holiday and it felt like everyone else had a family straight off the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. “OK, enough” she told herself as she stepped into the shower. As she soaped her body, she determined to count her blessings. Blessing number one, she had never been thinner. A failed marriage, stark terror and an erratic work schedule had done wonders for her figure; it had chiseled every ounce of extra flesh away. She wondered how she would look in a pair of tight jeans, new clothes were not in her budget but it sure would be fun to try some on, trying on clothes was fun and free, she reasoned, maybe this week-end, they could go to the mall and try on clothes, no better not, too hard on Erin if she couldn’t afford to buy anything, too hard on her too. OK, she told herself, let’s get back to the business of counting our blessings. Blessing number one, she was fashionably thin. Blessing number two, she had no credit rating in her own name; she didn’t qualify for credit cards so no temptation could lead her into debt. Blessing number three, there was a pot of coffee waiting in the kitchen, she headed that way while wrapping herself in an oversized bathrobe. After filling her favorite cup she turned and there was Erin standing in the doorway, “Good morning Mommy” she said around a yawn. “’Morning Baby Bunny” answered Connie reaching out her free arm to hug her, thinking, Here’s blessing number 4, 5, 6 and beyond right here. Here was her reason for living. She felt herself choking up and gave the tousled haired seven year old a little shove “you go put some slippers on or least some socks and I’ll get you a cup of hot chocolate. We’ll have a cuddle and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.” “OK Mom, Happy Thanksgiving. “Happy Thanksgiving to you too baby”. Two hours and one parade later it was still raining. “Now what are we going to do?” Erin asked, “Now we are going to get dressed, get in the car and go see if we can find some adventure”. “What kind of adventure?” “Well, if I knew it wouldn’t be much of an adventure now would it?” “Dorothy didn’t know what was going to happen on the yellow brick road, did she?” “No, she didn’t” said Erin, that was good enough for her; they had read all the OZ books together, a chapter a night, they were among Erin’s favorites. Ten minutes later she emerged from her room wearing her favorite Ditto Saddleback jeans (now a couple of inches too short), her tattered sneakers and a sweatshirt that said “Yellowstone National Park” across the front “How’s this?” she asked, “Perfect” her mother answered, “comb your hair, brush your teeth, wear your warmest jacket and we’ll follow our yellow brick road”. As she slipped into her own, now baggy jeans and an old sweatshirt, Connie wondered how she was going to turn a cheeseburger at Denny’s into a grand adventure. She knew there was a Denny’s down the street from Knott’s Berry Farm so she headed the blue Pinto towards Beach Blvd. Maybe, just maybe the shops and chicken restaurant might be open today. She had called every movie theatre, shopping mall, and miniature golf course that she could think of, all were closed. She knew that the ponies were running at Hollywood Park but somehow that just didn’t seem appropriate, not really family friendly. As they drove by Knott’s she could see that they were out of luck, closed up tight as a drum. She made a U-turn in the entrance driveway saying, “Nope, our Yellow Brick Road doesn’t lead here”. But there’s a Denny’s down the street, let’s get something to eat and see what happens next. Her voice, with its false cheerfulness, set her teeth on edge. She glanced sideways at her daughter and tried read her expression but her little face gave nothing away. She remembered the first time Erin came home from spending the week-end with her father and his new girlfriend, she said, “I kept my face plain so no-one could tell what I was thinking”, was that what she was doing now? Making her face plain? About half way down the block, something caught her eye, there was a couple of cars in the parking lot and a person in the ticket booth at the Movieland Wax Museum, she made a quick U-turn in the middle of the block, Erin looked at her startled, “Keep your fingers crossed Baby, I think I know where the Yellow Brick Road is taking us. They parked the car and made a dash for the door getting soaked in the process. The bored looking girl in the ticket booth said they were the first customers of the day, maybe their only customers of the day. “Really?” responded Connie “You mean we have the whole place to ourselves?” “Yup” was the reply. Somehow this cheered her up enormously; there would be no one to stare at them, to wonder what their story was, to wonder why they were alone on Thanksgiving. At first they just walked around looking at the figures, it was spooky quiet and their voices echoed when they spoke. They looked at a few political figures, a replica of Michelangelo’s David and General George Patton. Most of the displays, however, were dedicated to Hollywood. The silliness started with Mae West reclining on her couch, they each took a turn at posing by the display and saying “Why don’t ya Come up and see me some time” out of the corner of their mouths. The bored guard reminded them not to touch or go pass the ropes and they promised that they wouldn’t, after that he left them pretty much alone. The movie scenes with their original costumes were the best. Mother and daughter danced and sang in front of Debra Kerr and Yul Brenner; they joined hands and twirled around the floor to “Shall We Dance” from the King and I. They joined Gene Kelly and Debby Reynolds in “Singing in the Rain” it seemed so appropriate for the weather, so they did that one twice. They did their best rendition of a tap dancing Shirley Temple “On the Good Ship Lollypop”. But the display they returned to again and again was Dorothy, the Tin man and the Cowardly Lion skipping down the yellow brick road. They locked arms and skipped through the museum, “We’re off to see the wizard the wonderful wizard of oz. Because, because, because, becaaause of all wonderful things he does”. They danced and sang and giggled until the guard came in to say that it was closing time. It was dark as they returned to there car, but the rain had stopped and Denny’s was just a block away. “I’m starving” they both said at once and laughed again. Years later they couldn’t remember who said it first but they forever more titled their day, “The Weird Family Goes to the Wax Museum”. It was the first of many weird family adventures. They were only two, they were weird, square pegs in round holes but still, they were family and no family had ever been closer than they were on that Thanksgiving Day.