“You worked very hard today,” Bobby said as he slung my arm across his shoulders.His own arm went around my waist, stabilizing me.“I think you deserve to finish what you started.”
Together, we shuffled forward the final few steps, and everyone burst into cheers.
Bobby’s lips brushed my ear, and I thought I could hear the smile in his voice as he whispered, “Happy Thanksgiving.”
5
It was Thanksgiving, and it was time to eat.
“It’s time to eat!”I called, and my voice echoed through Hemlock House.
“No,” Indira told me.She came around the sofa carrying a tray of silverware and a stack of napkins.“It’s not.”
“But the turkey,” I said.
Indira shook her head.
“And the dressing,” I said.
She shook her head again.
“And the cheesy potatoes.”
“We’re going to set the table in the dining room—”
I opened my mouth.
“In the real dining room,” she said over me, “and we’re going to take advantage of this beautiful home and have a nice, sit-down meal.We’ve never had a Friendsgiving before, and I want this to be special.”
Once again, that brilliant brain of mine came to the rescue.“That sounds lovely, but since I’m currently injured, possibly beyond any hope of recovery—”
Bobby chose that moment to be a traitor.“I saw you get up to charge your phone.”
“—and that’s why I’m lying here on the couch, hanging out with all these dead birds—and with Bobby, who is totally a traitor—”
“You also got up to use the bathroom, to get your Switch, and to change clothes after Keme made fun of your Nirvana sweatshirt.”
“It’s a cool sweatshirt!Why does it matter if I bought it at Target?God, you are being such a—” I tried to come up with something good, but the closest I came was Benedict Arnold.
“Traitor?”Bobby asked.
I regrouped and focused on Indira.“Since I’m definitely too injured to set the table and eat at the table and sit at the table like an adult, maybe we could, you know, just eat out here, in the living room, and we can relax and watch TV.”
Indira gave me a long look.She has a lock of white hair just like a witch, and she has tremendous mom energy even though I’m not sure if she actually has kids of her own (not the kind of thing you can come right out and ask Indira), and one time, I swear to God, she gave a seagull the stink-eye and it flew straight into the side of the house.I mean, it was fine, thank God, but it didn’t bother her again.
“Is that your idea of a holiday meal with people you love?”she finally asked.“Slumped on a sofa, surrounded by taxidermy birds, while the television fills the silence with mindless noise?”
Out of her line of sight, Bobby was shaking his head furiously.
I got the message.“Um, no?”
“Excellent.Please set the table.”
“I’ll help him, Indira,” Bobby said.
“You know what you are?”I told him after she left.“You’re a teacher’s pet.”
All I got in return was that goofy grin, but he did help me set the table.
