Gobble up Stuffing

"What happened to the turkey?" Nama exclaimed as soon as the turkey came out of the oven. Today is Thanksgiving Day and there are only a few hours left before guests would come in to take a seat.

"I don't know. It seems like one day in the stove wasn't enough. The meat is all hard as a rock and completely not fit to eat. We can't go out to buy another turkey right now. It's too late. Since Thanksgiving is the time of the year to stuff our faces then maybe we could make extra stuffing and fill it up with rotisserie chicken and call it good. Go buy some from the store," Elk said taking off the leg of the turkey to observe how, on the inside, the meat looked uncooked yet, on the outside, is hard as a rock. The stove isn't the proper place to cook a turkey.

Nama left and then, 20 minutes later, appeared with her hands full of rotisserie chicken and stuffing. Quickly Elk went to work with cooking the stuffing and adding bits and pieces of chicken into the stuffing. Any leftover chicken would then be separated into chunks for the guests to eat. All of the stuffing took the entire chicken leaving not enough meat left for the guests to eat. The dressing sits ready without any meat in it. One hour before guests are expected to arrive and the last of the stuffing has been put onto the stove to cook. The remaining stuffing uses up the skins and legs of the last chicken to use. A doorbell could be heard as he braves the last of the stuffing and went over to answer the door. Moose stood there on the front porch, the first of the guests have arrived. More are expected. Allowing Moose in, Elk went back to check on the stuffing. Fully cooked. Setting out the last of the stuffing mixed with the chicken, he went over to the living room where the front door is.

The next half hour guests enters the living room. After Moose came Mouse, then Fox and Wolf, and finally Turtle. Each of them had been named after an animal that is Nama's favorite since she couldn't think of any other name to call them by. Three brothers and three sisters. All six of them make up one big family. Palo, their father, had died when they were just a tiny infant so they never came around to know who their father is except for the stories Nama spoke of to them about him. Sometimes Nama had mentioned seeing him walking down the hall of the second floor and wondered what it could mean, as if he were still around. Now that they're older some of them became married and has children. They also appeared, not just the brothers and sisters around. Everyone is grateful for Nama and all of her hard work in raising them. Six with the same birthday doesn't happen all the time and this time it's not just their birthday today, it's Thanksgiving too. Birthday presents lay in one corner of the living room as the birthday guests are expected to come an hour later after they finish having their own Thanksgiving.

"What happened to the turkey?" Turtle asks as he examined the lump of turkey still laying in a corner of the kitchen. The sight of a bunch of stuffing to eat along with dressing, baked potato, pumpkin pie, and brownie felt incomplete.

"Well, the stove turned out to be a disaster. The turkey didn't cook at all on the inside and, on the outside, it's as hard as a rock I wouldn't dare bite into it. Only good for trash. Now that everyone's here for Thanksgiving, let's gather around so Nama could pray and we can all eat. Happy 20th birthday for everyone here too since we were all born on the same day, this same day 20 years ago. Just to think what all we've been through," Elk replies and then gathered everyone into the children, young and old alike.

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

Word count: 685
Written for "The Bard's Hall Contest" .