Turkey Day

Author's Note: This piece was crafted around a focused stream of consciousness. The theme was Thanksgiving, I turned it into a piece that was about what we are  feeling around the holidays in general. In this piece I wanted the audience to recognize a mature voice and vocabulary.

The smell that has taken over the air is so great that it makes my mouth water as I walk through my grandparent’s home. Just the thought of having Thanksgiving, has put a smile on my face. I made sure that I had gotten plenty of sleep last night and woke up at the crack of dawn in order to prepare for the feast that is about to be enjoyed. I look around and notice everyone hard at work, grandma is finishing up the cranberry relish and I am setting out the glass china; the kind that only gets taken out at rare occasions. My grandfather is taking our ten pound turkey out of the oven, carefully not to spill the juice that has leaked out into the pan. Dad is taking the electric meat slicer out of the drawer, ready to tackle this beast. Leihan, my younger sister, is begging to open the sparkling grape juice early and my brother cannot sit still. I look around, happy, content with the joy within the family, now realizing that as we might all sit around the table, the smiles among everyone's faces will be swept away.

The holiday season is always the most difficult for everyone. We live in this utopic world for the rest of the year until we cannot keep it in anymore, the tears will start to flow and the sobs will get louder at the remembrance of my great grandfather, papa. He left us close to some 4 years ago now, to go to a better place, one without pain and suffering, where he can have no care in the world. You would think that we would be happy, take pleasure in the fact that we don't have to see him like that anymore; this is a bridge that we haven't crossed yet. Ever since the funeral I have trained myself to think about the happy time I had with him. The lessons he taught me, and the impact he has made on others. This ever-so-simple task has been simple for me, knowing that I have to be the shoulder that my sibling needs to cry on, it is the rest of the family that had been the bump I can't seem to climb over.

Every year as we sit down for the holidays, this is always the premature thought. I believe that as time goes on we will all slowly learn to cope with his loss and we will come closer and closer to crossing that bridge, but until then, the tears will continue to fall and the sobs will continue to get louder and louder.