Page 66 of Talk to Me

Though he’d been impressed with the chicken fried steak lunch, and proclaimed he would never be able to eat again, he’d changed his tune at dinner. After all the work around the house, he was as ravenous as the rest of us when Mom laid out a dinner of goulash, buttery garlic toast, and salad. Each time his plate got close to empty, Mom slopped another giant helping of goulash back onto his plate. By the time we were done eating dinner, Theo looked as if he could vomit.

With Thanksgiving being the next day, and not being able to sleep in, we all retired early in the evening. Theo, Evie, and I would be getting up early to help Mom, and Dad would be getting up early to organize meat cooking with Uncle Buster. Theo and I let Evie use the bathroom we shared first, then I let Theo get his shower and get ready for bed next. Finally, I took my turn in the bathroom, not getting to spend nearly as much time in the hot shower as I wanted since most of the water had been used up. However, I managed to wash the day’s stink off of me and brushed my teeth and hair before slipping into my basketball shorts and t-shirt.

Back in my room, with only the desk lamp on, I found Theo sitting in the dark corner on the cot, talking to the screen of his phone. I crept into the room so as to not disturb him, closed and locked my door, and tiptoed across the cold wood floor to my bed. The bed creaked slightly as I sat down and I winced, but Theo didn’t even look up from his phone.

“You guys aren’t going to believe it,” Theo was saying, “I’m spending my Thanksgiving on a farm!”

I grinned widely, holding back a laugh as Theo told his Peepers followers all about his holiday plans, the things he’d seen, and all of the content he was going to have for them soon. Finally, when he ended the video and laid his phone atop his bag on the floor next to the cot, he looked over at me.

“I am so tired,” he said.

“Farm life,” I said with a shrug and began pulling back the covers on my bed. “You’ll sleep well. Which is good, since we’re getting up early.”

“How early?” Theo asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Not too early,” I said. “Seven-ish.”

He lifted his phone to look at the time. Relieved to find it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet, he laid his phone back down. Watching me, Theo realized that I was getting ready to slip under the covers, so he started to pull back the covers on the cot.

“Do you guys always go to bed this early?” he asked quietly.

“You just said you were exhausted,” I said.

“Well, yeah,” Theo responded. “Just wondering.”

“When you do manual labor all day, you look forward to bedtime,” I said.

“Fair enough.”

I pulled my legs up on the bed and slid under the covers before laying back until my head was on the pillow. I pulled the covers up to my chin, blocking out the chill of my room. I looked over, and once I saw that Theo had gotten under his covers, I reached over and switched my desk lamp off. Enveloped by the darkness, I sighed and wiggled around in bed, finding the perfect position. Theo groaned happily on the cot across the room.

“I’ve never been this tired in my life,” Theo said. “Or so full.”

“You’ll be starving in the morning,” I said back in the darkness. “It’s a way of life.”

I heard Theo shift on the cot.

“What will your mom make for breakfast?” he asked, and I could practically hear him salivating.

“Probably biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage. Nothing healthy,” I said. “And we’ll eat as soon as we get up so our tummies will be empty when we eat Thanksgiving around three o’clock.”

“Does she cook like that for every meal?”

“Well, yeah,” I said. “Hard work deserves hearty meals. Expect bowel issues for the first week back to school.”

Theo chuckled and then the room was silent once more. The cot creaked as Theo shifted once more.

“Is it always this cold in here?” he asked. “I’m freezing.”

“I have the coldest room in the house. I like it. It makes for good sleep.”

Theo shivered hard enough on the cot that I could hear it rattle.

“I don’t know how you stand it,” he said. “I mean, I don’t like it hot, but it’s like a freezer in here.”

I sighed. “Grab your blankets. Come on.”

“What?” Theo whispered in the darkness.