she said, “Honey, I ain’t touchin’ that and you betta warsh it before you come to dinner.” They both started laughing then Virginia turned and went back into the kitchen to work on the next meal.
Chapter Twenty
The next day Marcus and Kim made the trip to Chattanooga and loaded up on flour and sugar. They saw several dinosaurs on the way but none that would be a problem. The recent dinosaur migration had greatly increased the population in the area. It looked like they were staying in this area at least for the winter.
Kim and Marcus had to raid several grocery stores in the area before they found the pumpkin filling. A lot of the stores were either ransacked by some humans or dinosaurs had torn the place apart. They finally found what they were looking for by searching the excess stock of a store that had already been ransacked. Apparently no one had looked in the back. The trip back was uneventful except for one t-rex for which they had to stop as he slaughtered one of the smaller dinosaurs. Its prey was too hard to recognize because by the time they come upon the t-rex, it had already ripped the dinosaur to shreds. They had to back slowly away and go around in a different direction.
The day before Thanksgiving Marcus brought everyone together to tell them his plan for tomorrow. He really wanted a traditional Thanksgiving like he had when he was a kid. They were thrilled with what he had planned so the next day they proceeded with the plan.
Marcus had gotten with Jocelyn and had pulled up footage from the old Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a few cartoons. Virginia worked on the meal and the rest of the women and girls sat around watching the parade and helping Virginia when she needed it.
Marcus took the twins and Rom with him. Marcus’ dad had always taken him hunting on Thanksgiving morning. He had been working with the boys on learning how to shoot and he wanted to give them a chance to use what they had learned. Johnnie and Ronnie shot at about anything that moved but never made any contact.
Rom, on the other hand, was a natural. He bagged two rabbits by the time they were ready to go home. Marcus took the boys out to the barn and showed the boys how to properly clean a rabbit. As boys normally are, all three were fascinated with the internal workings of the rabbits. Marcus cleaned the first one and let the boys take turns working on the other. Finally finished they went in the house, cleaned up, and got ready for the meal.
The table wasn’t large enough for all of them so the children sat at the kitchen counter and the adults sat at the table. As was with the tradition at the Rainwater’s house, everyone stood shoulder to shoulder around the table, held hands, and bowed their heads. Marcus bowed his head and offered thanks for the food and asked for God’s blessing upon them. When he was finished everyone sat down to the scrumptious meal Virg had cooked. In the middle of the table was a huge turkey sitting in a pan of cornbread dressing. There were mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, green beans, corn, coleslaw, and gravy. It smelled delicious.
For dessert, Virginia had outdone herself making pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake, and even peanut butter cookies. Everyone ate until they were so stuffed that almost everyone was moaning. Then everyone helped clean up and afterwards they all sat around the living room. Jocelyn started a movie and in about thirty minutes half of them were asleep taking a nap.
Later after everyone was awake again, Marcus had Jocelyn start a random football game that had been played on Thanksgiving. Everyone picked sides and cheered on the team they had picked. They all had a ball. Marcus noticed that everyone was starting to get sleepy so he told them the rest of his plan.
Most folks thought that mall shopping would die out and eventually all stores would go away. Although a majority of
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