Who: Mercury OTA at Haven What: Being Thankful... sort of. And football (American style). When: Thanksgiving Day. Where: Rec Room Warnings: none at the moment
Even when she knew she didn't have much left, she knew she should still be thankful. That should, though, that was the tricky part. Should be thankful didn't mean she was. It was an important difference. Should implied an obligation. It implied a loss of free will. It implied that she was a bad person if she didn't feel all that terribly thankful. Maybe that was it. Maybe deep down, she didn't really think she was a particularly good person. Because as thankful as she should be to be alive, she really wasn't feeling it. Least of all today.
No, today as the scent of sage and cornbread and stuffing and turkey and pumpkin pie filled the mansion as food was prepared, she was anything but grateful. She knew that somewhere out there her parents were eating similar, if not identical, food. She wondered if they missed her. They'd long since stopped calling to check on her. And so on this day that was really about three things (food, family, and football) Cess found herself with only one of them. And not the one she'd missed most.
Sitting in the rec room, she flipped on the television and tried to forget everything that today should be about, and tried to lose herself in whatever random football game was on. She wasn't a huge football fan, so one game was about the same to her as another. This one happened to be, at least according to an announcer, the Detroit Lions hosting the New Orlean's Saints in Detroit's 80th home game on a Thanksgiving Day. Tradition. Or something.
Now if only the scent of sage didn't torment her with everything she didn't have anymore, maybe she could just forget for a while everything she should be thankful for... and wasn't.