Thanksgiving 2023 was bound to be a unique one. Typically, it consisted of my mom and me sitting in front of the TV watching some sort of movie ranging from rom-com to horror. My father typically volunteered to work because he got paid time and a half for it, and since Christmas was the holiday when we would link up with our more distant relatives, Thanksgiving had fallen by the wayside.
However, this one would be different. I was attending my neighbor's dinner. Adelaide's entire family would be there. And from what I could gather from her socials, both sets of Henri's grandparents would be in attendance. Plus, Adelaide's younger sister and baby brother would be there too. With kids and spouses, there would be no less than twenty people in the house before I even got through the door.
While I enjoyed talking to Adelaide, this also told me that I was not going to be getting any tonight with that many people crowding the house. There would not be a free moment or a private space for us to get more physical. It had already been three weeks since our casual concert encounter, and I was getting pent up, to say the least.
At the designated time, I went to the Walker household. The street and driveway were littered with vehicles, many of them trucks. Finally, at the moment of no return, as I knocked on the door, a woman answered the door, but it was not Adelaide.
"You must be Jason, well c'mon in. I'm Laurel, Adelaide's Lil sister."
This woman shared the Southern Belle's chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and oval face, but the similarities stopped there. Where Adelaide's physique was trim, this woman was hardly that. And where Adelaide's appearance defied age, this woman looked almost twenty years older than her big sister.
I was immediately blasted with the scent of Turkey as I entered the home, and as Laurel brought me down the hallway, a different route than I had taken previously, I ended up in the family room. There was a large black leather sectional couch and another woman with sandy blonde locks that appeared to be at least a few years shy of Laurel.
"And this is Sara, my brother's wife."
I gave a simple wave since I was still anxious about meeting many new people.
"Howdy Jason," Sara greeted me. "Them menfolk and young'uns are out playin' with the pigskin at the park. They'll be back just in time for supper."
I took a seat about as far away from the middle-aged woman as I could. It was clear I was uncomfortable despite the hospitality they were trying to show me.
"Adelaide, mama, and Miss Faith, Jed's mama, are in the kitchen gettin' it already," Laurel explained.
"Now, Laurel and I were debatin' how someone like you might meet someone like Adelaide. My theory was you're one of them, male babysitters. But Laurel thought you were another stray good 'ol Adelaide picked up like she always does. So which is it, honey?"
I wanted to plead the fifth, but I knew that was not an option. "More the second one, but neither, really."
"I see. You're this city's Lucia, then. Let me guess, you consider yerself an artistic type, right?" Laurel was not just nosey. She had zero restraint.
"Lucia? And I guess you could say that."
"Lucia was Adelaide's best friend in Atlanta. She was a fancy pants photographer that worked on the movies down there or somethin' like that. She was a bit of a lost soul, too, before Adelaide found her and got her to commit to Southern Baptism. She was one of them wishy-washy Catholics before that." Laurel's voice seemed to get downright indignant the more she spoke.
I was not sure how to respond to their rapid-fire questions. Honestly, this seemed like more of an interrogation than a conversation. And all I was doing was giving them ammunition to gossip about me and possibly Adelaide.
"But enough with the questions about you. Now's the time to spill all the tea about Addie while she's busy." Sara, thankfully changed the topic.
"That's true," Laurel agreed. "What do ya wanna know, darlin'?"
"Nothing, honestly," I sense the women are apprehensive about that answer. "Well, I guess I want to know what you mean by me being another stray she is taking in?"
"Bless her heart! Adelaide's known to take in some folks who may not be the cream of the crop. When she was studyin' over in Marseille, she was with this fella named Henri. He was a suppos'd smarty-pants but had some funny ideas about communism, so I reckon he wasn't too bright." Laurel sounded just a tad self-righteous in her summation.
Sara then added, "Back in Blue Ridge, Adelaide used to play with them boys, gettin' down and dirty in the mud, rollin' around and such. Why, she's almost a legend for it! Folks say she could pitch a ball faster than greased lightning, even though we all know that ain't exactly the God's honest truth. But she sure could pitch a mean ball, or so the tale goes. 'Course, she gave all that up when she decided to become a proper Southern Belle."
"Then there was that time at Auburn when she was rushin' that sorority. Lord have mercy, that gal went and streaked through the whole campus. Our daddy nearly had a heart attack when he heard the news. But you know Adelaide, she always gets what she wants. Before you knew it, she was accepted into that sorority and became the social chair." Laurel seemed to revel in revealing all this.
"So she has a habit of hanging with the wrong crowd?" I ask more for the sake of having a polite conversation than because I care about any of the negativity these two are pedaling.
