Thanksgiving Read Online Free

stood up and stepped towards me. At that moment, the light dimmed for a moment.
    ‘The wind,’ Allen explained, looming above me. ‘When it drops, the power goes out. Here, let me take your coat. It’s awful hot in here. Awfully hot, I mean. Frightfully hot. Dreadfully hot. Appallingly hot. And all that rot.’
    ‘No, thanks.’
    ‘Believe me, you’d be better off without it. You’re starting to sweat.’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    He paused there a moment, then returned to his chair.
    ‘Actually, just for the record, I never did go to college. Fact is I was what you might call a high-school drop-out.’
    ‘That’s not what Lucy told me,’ I said as the light surged back.
    ‘Well, that makes sense, because it’s not what I told her. But I was trying to get into her pants, you see, and the first rule of successful salesmanship is “Don’t knock the merchandise.” If the customer likes what she sees, and I have to tell you she did, then your job as a salesman is to validate her decision. Reassure her that she’s made the right choice. Which I did, with maybe a little hyperbole built in. You ever been to the Hyperbowl, Tone? It’s kind of like the Superbowl, only more so.’
    ‘Can we get back to the point?’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘The will.’
    ‘What will?’
    ‘I’ve been talking to the children about how we should manage the estate.’
    ‘Luce made a will? Well, I’ll be. Never thought she’d have gotten around to it. She left everything to the kids, I guess.’
    ‘“Everything” is basically the house. They each get a third, I get the rest.’
    ‘Oh, really? You did all right, then. That place must be worth close to quarter of a million these days. It was a total fixer-upper when we bought it, but the neighbourhood demographic’s changed some since then.’
    Lucy and I had had the house valued a few months earlier. The realtor said we should list it at two-seventy and expect to sell for at least two-fifty.
    ‘You seem very well informed,’ I replied.
    ‘Real estate’s another little hobby of mine. Anyway, I notice I don’t get a cent, so what’s all this to do with me?’
    ‘What it’s got to do with you is that Claire, Frank and I have to decide whether or not to sell up and cash in now – which would of course mean me moving – or wait a while. A factor in that equation is knowing what expectations if any they have from you.’
    ‘How do you mean, expectations?’
    ‘What provisions have you made for your children in your will?’
    Darryl Bob Allen stretched lazily.
    ‘Well, tell you the truth I haven’t actually got around to making out a will just yet. I’m planning on hanging in here a while yet.’
    ‘Of course. That’s what we all plan on. But the fact is you could die any time. Even tonight. You never know.’
    ‘You mean a person?’
    ‘What person?’
    ‘A person never knows? Or I, me, myself, specifically don’t know?’
    ‘I’m just trying to work out what’s the deal for the kids. I’m sure we both want the best for them, Darryl.’
    ‘Oh, sure.’
    He sighed and waved his hand around.
    ‘Well, this is basically all I’ve got. If they want it, they’re welcome to it. I mean, there’s no one else in the picture. They’ll get it anyway, will or no will.’
    ‘You have no other dependants?’
    He shook his head, a single decisive swipe which reminded me uncannily of Lucy. She must have copied it from him, I realized, or he from her.
    ‘So that’s it?’ he asked.
    ‘What’s what?’
    ‘You came all the way down here for that? Hell, we could have done that when I called you from town.’
    He refilled his glass.
    ‘But that’s not really why you came, is it?’
    ‘Why else?’
    He beamed at me through his lumberjack beard.
    ‘You came to see me!’
    ‘Why would I do that?’
    ‘Well, I’m just guessing here, admittedly. But you’ve just lost your wife, right? I lost her too, but that was a while ago. I’ve had time to get used to it. Plus I had her