Chapter 7
A few weeks past and Thanksgiving had come to the Breadbasket. Galaxy-Man didn't know how to cook a turkey, so every year he would go to Doagie's and buy a turkey sub and gather all his friends for a nice supper.
Galaxy-Man and Cherry were soundly asleep in their bedroom. There were no actual beds in the house, so they both slept together in a room full of blankets and pillows, which were piled halfway to the ceiling. It was actually very comfy. Even when he slept, Galaxy-Man wore his trademarked black shades. Galaxy-Man and Cherry almost always went to bed at the same time and woke up at the same time, but today Galaxy-Man woke up a little earlier than usual. He sat up and lifted his shades slightly to rub his sleep-encrusted eyes, and then crawled over to the door and walked out, not making a peep. He walked into the next room, which was a dusty room full of clothes and dressers. He put on some semi-nice clothes for the day ahead. He wore a thin blue shirt and an okay pair of khakis. He looked pretty good actually.
For the next few hours, Galaxy-Man was in the kitchen getting everything ready for the big day ahead. Hamilton, his parents and Cutty were all coming over later and he wanted everything to be perfect. He prepared dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato pie, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, hushpuppies and collards. He had already bought the turkey hoagie the night before. Today was sure to be special, but there was a problem – the house was a complete disaster. Normally, Galaxy-Man didn't care how his house looked, but it was beginning to smell, and it was becoming hard to navigate. There were stacks of plates everywhere, mountains of clothes, and a leaning tower of pizza boxes to top things off.
Cherry walked into the kitchen rubbing her sleepy eyes. She saw Galaxy-Man laboring over the hot stove. There was food everywhere. “Good Lord, Dad,” yawned Cherry, “that's a big breakfast. I ain't that damn hungry, man.”
Galaxy-Man pointed a greasy spatula at Cherry. “Whatchu talkin' about, man? This my breakfast!”
Cherry laughed. “It smells really good, Dad.”
“Thanks, kiddo. Maybe I'll share a little with you,” he winked. He tossed his spatula over his shoulder into the sink and walked over to the broom closet and grabbed a couple of brooms.
“I didn't even know we had brooms,” said Cherry.
“Me either. I've never even opened that closet before, man. I grew up here, man.” He lifted one of the brooms up. “Catch!” he shouted as he tossed the broom over to Cherry.
Cherry wasn't very thrilled with sweeping, but she didn't mind helping out her father.
They walked into the living room, but were quickly overwhelmed. They sort of pushed everything into a pile in the middle of the room. The pile was about as tall as Cherry, and smelled about as nice.
“Come on, man. That's my daughter you're talking about.”
“It's okay, Dad, I am a little funky today.”
They watched TV while cleaning to make things a little more bearable. They liked watching Beaverball news because of the funny way they talked, Beaverball being the capital planet of the solar system of course.
"Here is a bulletin from BBN.” said the newsman on TV. “The last morpher is in captivity. The Galaxy is at peace.” On screen was a little gooey worm about the size of a pinky finger.
“What's a morpher?” asked Cherry, propping herself up on her broom.
“They're kinda like silkworms,” said Galaxy-Man, “but they don't make silk.”
“So, kinda like a worm then?”
“Well, not exactly. They look puny, but they can be pretty darn scary when they get bigger. I didn't even know there were any morphers left to be honest.”
“It sounds like they should just kill it then.”
Morphers were once the most powerful creatures in the galaxy. They never stop growing and they never stop changing. They were called morphers because they had so many forms, each more terrible than the last. They could survive anywhere and eat the very ground itself to survive. It's good that the last one was in captivity.
After a about an hour, the living room and kitchen were clean, though there was still the giant mound of filth to deal with.
“What are we gonna do?” asked Cherry. “We can't just shove it under the couch. It's still full from the last time we cleaned the house.”
Galaxy-Man gave a big smile and snapped his finger. The answer had came to him. He knew exactly what to do. “Go get the wheelbarrow, please, ma'am,” he said politely.
“You got it, Father-Man.” Cherry walked outside and walked across the street over Hamilton's garage. She walked to the back of the room and jacked Hamilton's brand new red wheelbarrow and wheeled it outside, but not before cutting the ends off all his extension cords with a pocket knife for no good reason. With the wheelbarrow, she booked it back across the street and wheeled inside the house.
They piled everything into the wheelbarrow. “Where are we gonna put it?” asked Cherry. “The yard's pretty full.”
“I know what to do,” said Galaxy-Man confidently.
They rolled over Hamilton's back yard, making sure not to be seen, and dumped their load.
“Go, go, go,” whispered Galaxy-Man as they both ran off with the wheelbarrow. Galaxy-Man rolled it inside his garage. It was a nice wheelbarrow, so Galaxy-Man figured he'd just borrow it for a while.
Etsuka and her newly adopted son, Caiden, saw Cherry and Galaxy-Man and knew they must've been up to no good.
Galaxy-Man smiled and waved as he walked outside. “Hey Miss E.!” he shouted. “Would you guys like the come over and eat later?” he kindly asked.
“No, thanks,” said Etsuka, coldly.
Cherry then walked over. Caiden had never actually seen Cherry before. He stayed in the house mostly. He was about the same age as Cherry. He was a kid who just wanted to play and have fun like all the other kids, but his parents pushed him hard to study all the time and learn everything. His parents were strict and hard, and always pushed him to be the very best. He was very smart, but he was a dreadfully unhappy kid.
“I like your son's blue hair,” said Caiden.
“Caiden!” said Etsuka loudly with her teeth closed and her eyes wide.
Galaxy-Man and Cherry were a bit surprised. It wasn't unusual for Cherry to be mistaken for a boy, though. She had short hair and never wore feminine clothes.
“Respect the curves, dude,” said Cherry.
“Yeah, man, Cherry's a girl, bro.”
“I got Fallopian tubes, dawg.”
“Okay!” snapped Etsuka. “We don't need to know about your anatomy.”
Caiden was very embarrassed.
“Aw, it's okay, dude,” laughed Cherry “want me to buy you a beer?”
“Mother only lets me drink water,” said Caiden.
“Come on, Caiden,” said Etsuka, “you've got homework to do. I don't want you hanging around those two.”
“Ouch,” said Cherry. “Standin' right here, man.”
“You guys are still welcome to stop by if you get hungry!” shouted Galaxy-Man as he and Cherry headed inside.
The house was finally clean, er, clean-ish at least.
“Wow,” said Cherry, “I didn't know our carpet was red.”
“I didn't know we had carpet.”
Cherry began sniffing. “It's still kinda stanky in here, man. Smells like a sumo wrestler took a dump on a burning tire.”
“Wait,” said Galaxy-Man “I've got it!”
“Well spit it out, fool.”
“Bring me my stink stick good sir!”
“You mean your deodorant?”
“You know it, braj.”
With his Speed Stick, he rubbed the walls, the floor, the furniture and even the cat with smell-good. The house now smelled like an armpit, but it was a good-smelling armpit.
The house was finally as presentable as it was gonna be. Galaxy-Man and Cherry set the table and put on some Ella Fitzgerald on the record player. Galaxy-Man turned on the fireplace even though it was always Summer and there wasn't much of a need for it. Regardless, it was quite lovely.
Hamilton and his parents were the first to arrive. Hamilton's house used to belong to his parents, but gave it to him and moved into a house at the end of town. Though they were both deaf and couldn't hear him speak, they always liked Galaxy-Man. Galaxy-Man liked teasing them, though. He would often pretend to yell and get angry, but they could always tell he was only playing. They were both born deaf so they couldn't read lips, and Galaxy-Man liked to say mean things to them, but with a big smile.
“Hey there, you crazy son of a Beach,” said Galaxy-Man to Hamilton, their last name being Beach of course.
“Wow,” said Hamilton, “you've got the place looking great. I didn't know you guys had a floor.”
Coming behind Hamilton were his parents. Galaxy-Man walked over and gave his father a handshake. “I just pooped and didn't wash my hands,” said Galaxy-Man with a wolf's smile as he shook the man's hand. He then walked over to Mrs. Beach and gave her a big hug. “So glad you could make it,” said Galaxy-Man. “Oh my, you've gotten fat, Mrs. Beach.” Mrs. Beach just smiled bashfully and giggle a bit. She had a very pretty smile. She wasn't actually fat. She was very short and small, and had short, graying brown hair. She wore nice earrings and a lovely dress that day. Mr. Beach on the other hand was a thin, mustachioed gentlemen with white hair and very pale skin. He wore a black suit with a fedora. He looked like he just walked out of a Norman Rockwell painting. He kindly tipped his hat and gave a sort of salute to Galaxy-Man, which was sign language for “howdy,” that much Galaxy-Man could understand.
Galaxy-Man led them into the dining room and everyone sat down. Stevie was sitting on the table licking the gravy bowl and Cherry was sitting at the head of the table with her nose in a book. Galaxy-Man never made her read anything. In fact, she didn't even have to do her school work unless she wanted to, she being home schooled. Galaxy-Man let her make her own decisions. She didn't have to read, but she got to. Since school wasn't a chore, she enjoyed it. She got to pick and choose what she wanted to learn about and chose to read and learn things just because she could. She did things her own way and as a result she was smarter than most kids her age. This time she was researching the glove she found at Doagie's.
“Are you still reading about that toilet glove?” asked Galaxy-Man.
“It's called the Power Glove, Dad,” said Cherry, “and everything else is child's play.”
“Pff, whatever,” said Galaxy-Man as he sat down. “Okay guys, Cutty should be rolling up any second now.”
At that very moment, the doorbell rang.
“Did that just happen?” asked Cherry who was in disbelief.
“You must be psychic, Galaxy-Man,” said Hamilton.
Galaxy-Man and Cherry got up to go greet Cutty. Galaxy-Man opened the door and there she was.
“Hi guys,” said Cutty.
Galaxy-Man gave her a nice warm hug. “It's good to see you,” he said.
Cherry walked over and started smelling her arm.
“She smells real nice,” said Cherry, “like that fancy store we aren't aloud to go to no more.”
Cutty was wearing very nice clothes and smelled rose petal sweet. She wore a fancy dark blue navy coat with a white scarf and soft black pants. It was easy to forget that it was always summer in The Breadbasket.
“You look really fanciful today,” said Cherry.
“Yeah, why are you wearing your Sunday best?” asked Galaxy-Man.
“Sorry, I wasn't sure what to wear,” replied Cutty.
“It's all good in the hizzy, C-Dizzle,” said Galaxy-Man. “Now get in here, hooligan. We're all starving, been waiting for you for hours. Hamilton's totally p'd off at you. He's talkin' all this bad crap about you. Said he fixin' ta bust a fool.” Cutty of course knew he was only joking.
They all sat down at the table to eat.
“Hi Cutty,” waved Hamilton.
“How goes it?” she asked.
“Very good,” he replied.
Galaxy-Man, Cherry and Cutty sat down at the table.
“You wanna say grace, Hamilton?” asked Galaxy-Man. “It'd be weird coming from an atheist an all.”
“Certainly,” he said.
Everyone bowed their heads. Galaxy-Man and Cherry were both atheists and didn't believe in God or an afterlife, but they both had respect for others beliefs and always let Hamilton say grace. They liked hearing him say grace though because he always had something beautiful and poetic to say. He also gave grace in sign language whenever his parents were with him.
“O father we are thankful for the meal we are about to eat, for those that made it possible, and for those with whom we are about to share it. Let us be together; let us eat together, and never shall we entertain hostility. Amen.”
“Amen,” said Galaxy-Man, Cherry and Cutty.
Galaxy-Man handed Cherry an electric knife. “Would you like to carve the Thanksgiving turkey sub?” he asked.
“Golly, you really think I'm ready, Dad?” asked Cherry.
“I do,” said Galaxy-Man. “You're a man now.”
“I love you, Dad.”
Cherry gladly carved the hoagie. Everyone dug in and began to eat. Mrs. Beach was helping herself to some mashed potatoes. Galaxy-Man looked at her and smiled. “I poisoned the potatoes,” he said politely. Mrs. Beach just smiled bashfully and said thank you in sign language.
“I'm gonna tell her what you said,” threatened Hamilton, who was chawing away at some corn.
“Is she deaf?” whispered Cutty quietly.
“They're both deaf as a post an ugly to boot!!” screamed Galaxy-Man way too loudly.
Cherry started cracking up and Cutty laughed a bit, though she tried her best to hide it.
“Hey, ask your dad if the music's okay,” said Galaxy-Man.
Hamilton told him what Galaxy-Man said to Mr. Beach and he laughed. He respond and Hamilton chuckled.
“What? What did he say?” asked Cherry who had her nose back in her book and a big bite of hoagie in her maw.
“He said 'no, the only song I listen to is 'The Sound of Silence,'” replied Hamilton.
Cutty let out of loud laugh but covered her mouth and looked a bit embarrassed.
“Haha, you laughed,” Galaxy-Man teased. “Oh my God, you shoulda been here last Thanksgiving when we played charades. I'm starting to think they cheated.”
Cutty erupted into loud laughter. Cutty wasn't a person who could hold her laughter in. “I'm sorry,” she said, trying to regain her composure. “I'm sorry.”
“I guess you should've seen the signs,” said Hamilton.
“You guys are too funny,” said Cutty.
“You know why they're deaf?” asked Galaxy-Man.
“Why?” asked Cutty, who knew that he was about to say something hilarious.
“They used high volume shampoo!” he responded.
“I can't eat,” giggled Cutty as she shook her head. “You guys keep making me laugh.”
Cherry seemed to be really into her book.
“Care to join us in reality, Cherry?” asked Galaxy-Man. “You're like, off in your own little world over there.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to learn more about the glove. It says here it was first made in 1989 and used for video games, but that wouldn't explain all the USB ports because USB wasn't invented until 1996, and why would there be seven of them?”
“Cool, cool,” said Galaxy-Man, not really paying much attention. “Hey, Cherry, did you know that Cutty had a deaf boyfriend who used to talk in his sleep? Yeah, well long story short, Cutty woke up with a black eye!” Everyone laughed, and Hamilton translated to his parents who also thought it was funny.
“I don't see the problem,” said Cherry. “She's already got two of 'em,” she grinned.
“Oh my God,” laughed Cutty as she shook her head.
“Why you gotta play the race card, Cherry?” asked Galaxy-Man.
Everyone had a good laugh. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and there was more than enough food for everyone. Everyone got to take home a plate. It was especially magical for Cutty. She didn't have many friends, and wasn't very close with her parents, so she hadn't had a proper Thanksgiving in quite a long time.