The Thanksgiving Guest

THE THANKSGIVING GUEST

            It was the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, the girls were dining in shifts, and Bailey had invited her cousin to join her shift for dinner.

            “Leah, this is my cousin, Kelly Ann.  She’s come all the way from Montreal to spend Thanksgiving with us.”

            “I’m please to meet you Kelly Ann.”

            “You may call me simply Kelly . . . and I’ll bet you were about to say ‘I’m pleased to meet you, Simply Kelly!’”

            Leah laughed, “Right you are!  Come in, and make yourself at home.  You are Bailey’s cousin?”

            

        “Second cousin, we share a common set of Great-Grandparents.”

            “Our family has been in Montreal for many generations,” added Bailey.

            “Do you speak French?” asked Leah, “You could help Savannah teach French in the school room.”

            “I speak a smattering of Canadian French, it would probably only confuse things,” Kelly said, “I am looking forward to sharing this holiday with you all.  In Canada, we had Thanksgiving last month, so I get to have two Thanksgivings this year!”

            Julia came into the dining room and greeted Kelly.

            “Welcome!  Bailey has told us so much about you.”

            “Julia,” said Bailey, “what is this costume?  I thought you were going to be the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Girl this year.”

            “Blame Leah for this,” said Julia.

            “I was doing some research in Katherine Alyse’s history of fashion book, and realized that real Pilgrim girls would have dressed something like this.”

            “I like it,” said Kelly.

            

        “I showed it to Jane,” Julia went on, “and hoped she’d be impressed, since she’s such a stickler for historical accuracy.  But she was rather sarcastic; she said, ‘Nifty!  Now you are accurately dressed as the daughter of a mean-spirited religious fanatic.’  I forgot that she’d met Puritans.”

            They brought the food in and sat down to give thanks together.

            “I’m thankful for extended family,” said Bailey, taking Kelly’s hand, “I remember how much fun we had together on holidays when we were little.”

            “I do too,” said Kelly, “and would love to have fun times like that again.”

            
        “Well,” said Julia, “I can see how you and Bailey could be the best of friends.  Would you like to live with us here in the Big House?”

            “Could I?  You are all so nice, and this house is beautiful, and I’d love to be Bailey’s best friend!  I’d love to stay!”

            “But is there room?” asked Leah, “We are already doubled- and tripled-up in all the bedrooms.  The only space left is the maid’s room on the third floor.”

            

         “I’ll take it!” said Kelly.

            
         “No!” protested Bailey, “There’s room for another bed in Jane’s and my room.  It will be nice and cozy!”

            
        “Then that’s settled,” declared Julia, “We’ll set up a cot for you tonight, and send Nellie out tomorrow to hunt up a new bed for you.  It’s amazing the things she finds!”

            Later, as they were digesting, Leah had a sudden thought, “You realize that Kelly now makes thirteen of us living here.  Isn’t that supposed to be unlucky?”

            “Not at all,” said Julia, “We now have enough girls to start our own Witches’ Coven.”

            

        “Jane would never go for it,” said Bailey, “she still thinks witchcraft is a felony.”

            “Gila wouldn’t do it,” added Leah, “since Witches’ Brew is certainly not kosher.”

            “Hmm,” put in Julia, “Katherine Alyse and Mia Bella wouldn’t take part unless The Delineator said that ceremonial robes were the latest thing in evening wear.”

             
        “That leaves nine,” said Kelly, “Nine is a magic number, surely we can do something with just nine of us.”  She turned to Bailey, “Remember when on holiday one year we drew magic circles in the dirt and tried to summon up demons?”

            “It didn’t work very well, as I recall,” said Bailey.

            “I don’t know,” replied Kelly, “The mean old woman next door came out at yelled at us.  That should count for something.” 

She turned to Julia.  “Bailey tells me most of the girls here are Theosophists.  Do you think you could be open to a little ceremonial magic?”

            “You mean like the Order of the Golden Dawn?”

            “Yes!  I have an uncle who is a member of a splinter group of a splinter group of the Golden Dawn in England.  We could start our own sub-sub-splinter group: The Hermetic Society of the Big House – Societas Hermeticus Domus Magnus, or something, my Latin is worse than my French.”

            
         Julia remarked to Leah, “I think she’ll fit right in.”