TASTY TURKEY

It was dusk and my son Alex and I were hoping to get a walk in before the sun went down. “I really hate that the sun sets so early now.” I complained as I pulled the strings of my sweatshirt hood tighter to cover my ears.

“Remember just a few weeks ago we were talking about how all the trees still had their leaves and how late fall was?” Alex locked the front door and we headed down the driveway.

“Yeah.” I sighed as I pointed to the piles of leaves on the ground. “Look what a few windy days will do.” We were both watching where we were stepping afraid of what could be under the leaves. “You know it just takes that one person who doesn't want to clean up after their dog to ruin a good walk.” I reminded him.

We were halfway through our walk and were rounding a bend when I stopped and pointed “Wow! They got really big!” I cried.

It was our neighborhoods flock of turkeys. We'd been watching the hen and her five chicks since they were born in the beginning of the summer, but now you couldn't tell which was which because they were all the same size. “We haven't seen them in weeks! I thought they'd gone into hiding!” We stopped to watch them as they began moving closer to us.

“Why did you think they were hiding?” Alex said as we moved back a little to give them some space.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, when we saw them before we'd say how cute they were. Now when I see them, so close to Thanksgiving, I just think 'Yum'.”

Alex looked over at me and began to laugh. “Did you actually just say when you see them you thought 'Yum'?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “It really was the first thing that popped into my head.” I felt a little ashamed of myself and thought I should explain. “It's just that we never have turkey except on Thanksgiving and I'm really looking forward to it.”

Alex looked over at the turkeys busy eating whatever it is that turkeys eat. “Wow! That never would have crossed my mind.” he said as he shook his head.

“That's because you don't like turkey.” I said as we watched the turkeys get in a line and follow one another across the street to another neighbors front yard.

“No...” Alex said slowly. “I like steak and I like hamburger but I've never driven by a cow and thought 'Yum'.”

“Okay! Fine!” I sighed again as we began walking. “Let's just agree that our minds work differently from one another.”

“Oh, I'll agree to that.” Alex laughed as he looked back over at the flock of turkeys. “But I'm never going to be able to see them again without thinking 'Yum'!”