“Come on there, Sam, Thanks-o-weenie? It’s in the name!” Dante slaps his leg.
“Or—hear me out—we could have Island Festival Day. A celebration of living the way we want to live.” Zane nods and does a move with his hand that reminds me of a model in one of the game shows that my mom used to watch when I was really little.
“Or we have Thanks-o-weenie, drink a couple bottles of the wine we have left, and fuck.” Dante shrugs at Haley. “What do you think, Sassy?”
“Why not both?” She holds her hands out to the side.
“Oh, it’s like one of those long holiday weekends where one holiday runs into the other. The neighbors at my dad’s house in Miami are from Bangladesh, and they have a huge party around Diwali and a holiday that is right after it,” I say.
“Like Christmas and New Year’s,” Sam says.
“It’s Govardhan Puja,” Zane adds.
“Impressive. But what do you think, Sassy?”
“Again I say, why not both?” She holds her hands out to the side again. “Both. I like the idea of celebrating each other. And thanking the island and the ocean for feeding us.”
“Well, to be technical, I’m the one who has been feeding us.” Dante saunters over to Haley and pulls on her ponytail.
“You know what I mean. Maybe we can tie it in with a ceremony on the other side of the island.” Haley turns around and stares at Calvin.
“Not now, Chiefie. It’s a nice idea, but we should wait until we need food again.”
“I suppose that’s practical.” Haley holds his gaze.
I’m watching him. Not taking care of the farmers on the other side of the island is gnawing at him. I saw the relief on his face when he thought we were going over today. Then to not even get there? Yeah, it makes it worse, I’m sure. It’s like training for a meet and then having it canceled a few hours before. Meets arenever something I wanted to do, but I was always glad I had done it when it was over.
“Practical is what we need to be to survive as long as we can,” Calvin says.
Zane groans. “Stop with the doom, Green. We’ve made it a long time. No one wants the shirty uncle who ruins Christmas around.”
Dante’s moving around in the kitchen area and shouts, “This isn’t Christmas. This is Island Festival and Thanks-o-weenie. Sassy, come here—I’m going to need your brains to figure out the perfect meals for our new holidays.”
She smiles, and a pang of jealousy hits me. I want to always be the one to make her smile. But as long as she’s smiling, that’s what really counts.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think you’re the smartest here. But I’ll help.”
“No one comes around the other side of the other tree until I say so.” Zane stops. “Wait, Sam, you want to help me?”
“With what?”
“It’s a surprise. Just come on,” Zane says.
Sam shrugs and follows Zane. Penny and Pepper follow him, and soon it’s just Green and me standing under the living room platform. I look over at the kitchen. Dante has Haley sitting on the counter, and she’s laughing, their heads inches apart.
“That’s good!” She giggles. It’s soul-filling music.
Calvin has his hands on his hips. “Come on, then.”
I look around. He’s talking to me.
“What? Maybe I have something else I need to do.” I lift my chin to him.
“You don’t, and Zane’s not working on a new home for these guys.” He points at the chickens. “We’ll need to do it.”
I glance back to Haley, who’s oblivious and coming out of her funk. “Fine. What are we doing?”
“We’ll need to give them a home base that they like. Free food. And then we can give them more freedom. Let them spread their wings. We had chicken tractors on the farm. Huge things we pulled with the tractor.”
