A Very Steel Thanksgiving

The farm didn't particularly care that it was Thanksgiving.  There were still chores that had to be done.  At least he had help this year.  An unusually enthusiastic Tabby, his oldest daughter, was helping him finish chores at a quick clip.  She had been in a much better mood since the night a few months ago when he caught her asleep in the barn.  Usually a melancholy, dramatic child with her head too far in the clouds, she at least now didn't seem as gloomy.

Grant Steel placed the feed out for the pigs.  The routine of farm life may not be for most people, but it was for Grant.  He loved the feeling of a successful crop, or a good sale of cattle.  He loved getting up and doing the same things each morning and enjoying a large country breakfast.

Tabitha was also anxious to help because he told her that she could bring her boyfriend over for Thanksgiving if she helped with the chores this week.  Her new boyfriend was Cokie something, a tall guy wearing a black Fedora.  Kids.  He couldn't keep up with their fashions.  He seemed young to him, and a little quirky, what with the ghost talk, but he had to admit that Tabby was a little quirky herself.  Don't know where her talk of space and final frontiers and all that came from, he thought.  Certainly didn't come from him.  Grant felt like he was the most grounded man on Earth.

Soon the chores were done and the guests were starting to gather.  Grant actually was restrained at breakfast knowing that the big Thanksgiving meal would start around One PM.  He was afraid everyone would be able to hear his stomach rumbling in anticipation, so he tried to ease it by nursing a hot cider.

First the two boys arrived, Abraham and Johnny.  Abraham had his own farm now, partially carved out of Steel family land.  He brought his wife Sarah and the two lights of Grant's life, his grandchildren, Robert (starting in third grade and possessing Tabby and Angela's scientific bent) and Freddy (just in Pre-K and a delightful, charming bundle of energy and creativity).  Johnny was single, having just broken up with girlfriend number...oh, hell, Grant had lost track at around number twenty.

Racine came downstairs from sleeping in, finally dressed and ready for the day.  She greeted her brothers warmly.  Race almost seemed sad, something he wasn't used to - she sure wasn't the moody one.  Maybe it was because Bobby Ray wasn't going to come over.  In fact, Grant hadn't seen Bobby Ray with her in a long time.  Well, who knows?  She didn't change out boyfriends at the clip that Johnny changed out girlfriends, but she was still young.  Grant was not naive about his youngest daughter.  He knew that she was very beautiful (he thanked his wife, Amy, for that genetic gift passed to Racine, because God knows, it wasn't from him).

Then that Cokie fellow arrived.  He shook his hand and Grant got Cokie to say his full name, and caught this time that Cokie was a Goodkind.  They were a good family.  They had lost all their farm land some thirty years ago, but they were a hard working family, struggling to do the best they could.  He remembered that Franny, Cokie's sister, had been exceptionally friendly and kind to his grandmother at the retirement village.  Tabby took off with Cokie to god knows where to do god knows what.

His brother Andy arrived, with Andy's wife, Vicki.  Andy was Sheriff of Dixon County, and by all measures was doing very well at it.  A little too kind-hearted, in Grant's opinion, but he kept that to himself.  He at first resented Andy for leaving the farm and not helping him with it, but time had healed that wound, and they were now close again. And Andy had done them a favor above and beyond the call of duty a year ago when he helped Johnny get into a quality rehab center, instead of booking him for possession with intent to sell.

The last to arrive was his oldest daughter, Angela.  She was shorter than the tall Tabitha, and not graced with the overwhelming beauty of Racine.  But she was pretty in her own right, more solidly built, taking more after Grant.  She had sharply cropped red brown hair, and wore granny glasses, but she had a pretty, well-proportioned face, with sparkling, lively blues eyes, partially hidden behind her granny glasses.  Angela was the chemistry teacher at Dixon County High, and very good at her job at all accounts.  Tabby certainly looked up to her.  Where all this science stuff came from in his family, he had no idea.  Amy was by herself again.  She said her husband worked the mill last night, and was too tired to come.  Grant saw him so rarely, he almost expected now for him not to show up for things.  It hurt his heart, but he knew that his daughter's marriage was hanging on by a very thin, fragile thread.

The Thanksgiving meal commenced.  Grant led the prayer, dedicating the meal to the memory of his recently departed grandmother, Sarah Rachel, who passed on her 105th birthday just a few weeks ago.  The meal was rich with over a dozen dishes, including squash casserole, fried turkey, country ham, mashed sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob, divinity, pecan pie and chocolate delight.  Virtually no one left the table without a groan and loosening their clothes at the waist.

The men went into the living to relax and watch football, while the women cleaned up the dishes and put away the food.  Sexist or not, that's just the way the Steel family worked.  If anyone objected, even the usually defiant Tabby, Grant didn't know about it.  The Steel men began the usual debate about who the Crowley home pro team was - the home state Atlanta Falcons, or the closer by Jacksonville Jaguars.  The women talked about whatever they talked about, but usually they were loud and laughing about it.  They seemed quieter this year.  Little did he know they were discussing when to tell the unobservant Grant something very important, something that all of Crowley knew about but he apparently did not.

After the game was over, Amy called Grant over, and they went into Racine's bedroom.  Tearfully, Racine told her Daddy what she had to tell him.  Neither Amy nor Racine were quite sure how Grant would react.  They were not optimistic.

Grant's face lost all its color.  Having three daughters, it was something he always was afraid might happen.  And here it was, right in front of him.  Racine was pregnant.  He wanted to jump out the window and scream.  He wanted to find Bobby Ray and beat the crap out of him.  He wanted to lecture her on religion and that she was supposed to wait for marriage, and be a good girl, and stay his precious sweet little girl forever.

He wanted to do all of that.  He did none of it.

He took her into his arms.  "It's all right, Race.  We're here for you.  Whatever you need, whatever you do, we'll be there for you."  He looked her in the eyes and said something to her that he rarely spoke aloud, that her usually reserved Daddy normally just said through actions.  "We love you, Race."

And it was then that Racine Steel knew that she was going to make it, come what may.