This is a short story that I originally posted earlier tonight on my Tumblr feed. It's kind of odd how this began. That feed is basically a place I write jokes, many of them pretty bad. Well, I wanted to write a Thanksgiving Joke, so I thought the Turkey in Bowling could be used when paired against the Holiday. But this piece took over.
Hope you all enjoy. Have a Happy Thanksgiving
Michelle was a single mom.
She was barely keeping things together as it was. She did have a coupon
for a free 20 lb bird, a sack of potatoes, an apple pie and some assorted
vegetables. Her local grocery store had the same promotion they run every
year, where you cash in your shopping points for various prizes. The
Thanksgiving meal is one of the big ones, and she saved up for it as she did
every year.
On her way to the store, a
few hours before it closed for the weekend, only three days before the holiday.
She saw these vets, wounded and malnourished standing outside an alms
booth. She didn’t have any money to give them, but she slowed down as
they were talking. It wasn’t just their stories that they were telling;
instead they were universal, of people just like them, but moreover, just like
anyone, anyone at all.
Michelle started crying,
knowing that this could easily have been her. She couldn’t help thinking that
no matter how bad she thinks she has it, there are those worse, much worse off
out there, how this clichéd saying is not a cliché at all.
She bowed her head as they
offered her God’s blessing. She redeemed her rewards and went out the
opposite door. She kept her head down,
making sure to evade these men. Eventually
she made it over to her car, but the uncomfortable feeling would not dissipate
let alone disappear.
On her way home, she
couldn’t get these men out of her head.
All those stories, all those people in their stories remained.
The next day she waited
for her babysitter to stop over as she does every Monday. It was her
outlet night, where her and the girls would meet for a night of bowling.
She was reminding her sitter the emergency contact numbers, the sitter
nodded without really listening, as they’re the same every time. But
this time, Michelle had a thought, one she could not shrug off.
She was driving down the
street to the alley and pulled into the parking lot where her girls were
already waiting for her. She got out, hugged her friends and asked if
someone could help her out.
Each girl took a
container; Michelle had the largest of the bunch. They crossed the street
and entered a shelter. She thought there had to be some reason that those
men had told their stories the day before. That she couldn’t get them out
of her mind and how it couldn’t be a mere coincidence that their shelter was
across from the lanes she bowls every week.
There she met up with
someone working hard. None of the ladies could believe how many people
were on cots in the one section. But when they passed through into the
main area, their jaws hit the floor. It seemed like hundreds of people
were either sitting down with a small portion of bread and soup or in line for
that precious meal.
She told the man how the
story she heard the day before affected her, and presented him all the food she
had and while not enough, perhaps it could help some out.
The man was ecstatic by
her generosity but assured her they barely have enough hands to go around here.
That there was no way they could afford to send any out looking for alms.
He asked, “are you sure they said they were from here,” to which Michelle
nodded and uncontrollably she welled up pretty quickly, almost simultaneously
with the man thanking god and looking to the ceiling as he did so.
They walked out and as
they did a young child came up to her leg, wrapped her arms around her left one
and hugged her, whispering a muffled thank you.
The girls left and went
across the street and bowled.
In the third game, the
league had a contest every major holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
Any one to bowl three consecutive strikes in the fourth, fifth and sixth
frames, wins a monstrous bird.
What would happen was
amazing. The girls were not great bowlers, Michelle in particular.
But on that night, not one, not two, not three, but all four of them
bowled turkeys that night.
The following evening,
Michelle and her kids took the four birds with them and decided to spend the
evening at the shelter, eating amongst the needful, but also to assist anyway
they could. And this particular Thanksgiving, her children learned a
lesson elsewhere they never could
