Thanksgiving Day

Every Thanksgiving while my mother gets dinner prepared, I play games with my cousins.  We usually play football or tag outside while my mom and the other grown ups work on getting everything set up, but this year it was too cold, so we had to play inside.

I don’t like playing inside on Thanksgiving because it gets so crowded and all the grownups are busy watching the football game or hurrying around to get dinner ready.  We tried to play tag, but after Marci almost broke my mom’s favorite vase, we decided to play something quieter – hide and seek.

I counted to ten while everyone else went to hide.

I found Marci in the basement, Thomas in the closet and Lacey under the table.  The only person left to find was Aiden, my little brother.  We searched high and low for him and couldn’t find him anywhere.  We even started asking the adults and calling his name to tell him he won and that we didn’t want to play anymore.

The scent of the turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes was wafting through the kitchen as we searched for my little brother, looking under beds and in cabinets and even outside.

It wasn't until I saw the raw, uncooked turkey sitting on the counter that the horror dawned on me. In the hurry to get dinner ready, nobody had seen him crawl into the oven, nor heard his screams after it was set to preheat.

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