Aurora Magazine 2020

Aurora

Alcohol Hayley Cooper

Poorly constructed “turkey” hands adorned the walls of the classroom, each a different size and shape. None of them resembling turkeys. Days before, we colored our Indian headdresses to wear on the day of our feast. I was especially proud of mine, as I chose each color with careful consideration and then colored each feather meticulously. The colorful paper headband sat on my desk in the back row of the second-grade classroom. I admired these details as I placed my bookbag and coat in my designated area of the classroom closet. I had been eagerly anticipating this day for what felt like weeks. You’d never been to one of my school functions. Some of my classmates had both of their parents make appearances at school functions, but that was never something I experienced. And I wasn’t envious, because Mom always came. I don’t remember why she couldn’t come to this one, the only school event she ever missed. Maybe she had something else to do, or maybe she thought you should finally make your appearance. I put on my paper headdress and looked at my unshapely turkey; I was excited and proud. Because I was a second-grade girl, I was worried about who we would sit by. Of course, I wanted to be near my best friends, maybe even near the boy I thought was cute. We moved our desks to the corners of the room, for the so-called “dining table” to fit. In reality, it was just two cheap white tables every school seems to have a plethora of. A dollar store tablecloth finished the look. On top of that, we placed our two nametags. One for ourselves, and one for our guest. Looking back, maybe I should have known you wouldn’t show up for the Thanksgiving event at my school. I wouldn’t get to show you around my classroom, where I sat, and where I placed my things. I wouldn’t show you the crafts I was so proud of, or see your reaction to them. I don’t remember much about the lunch we had. I couldn’t tell you what food we ate, or if I ended up sitting by my best friends or the cute boy. My memory starts to fade here, everything seems foggy and distant. What I do remember is one of my classmate’s mom taking a particular interest in me. I remember her blonde hair, still blown out and hair sprayed like she was in the 1980’s. She had a

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