A Christmiss Story

"And how about the cashier at the grocery store? Or the sales girls at Filene's yesterday? Did any of them have a clue?"

"No, but I didn't have to sit down to dinner with them and carry on a conversation about my make-believe life."

"I'll do most of the talking for us. All you have to do is smile sweetly and help out with dinner."

"What do you mean, help out?"

"It's a family tradition that the men folk go deer hunting on Thanksgiving morning, while the women folk cook the turkey and all the trimmings."

"This just keeps getting better and better."

* * *

Two hours later, with an apron wrapped around my waist, I was standing in the kitchen helping Donna's grandmother stuff the turkey while Donna sat in the corner gabbing with her mother and sister. Two brats were running around the house screaming, one of the brother's girlfriends was on the phone, and the other women were concocting various dishes while they chattered on about their kids, husbands and boyfriends. I glanced over at Donna, who gave me a smile of encouragement before returning to her conversation, as if there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about inviting a man dressed as a woman to her family Thanksgiving. In fact, everybody else in Donna's family seemed numbingly normal, and I wondered if they had any idea what she did for a living.

"Do you work with Donna in the big city?" her grandmother asked me. I had been standing in a corner trying to keep out of the way when she asked me to help her with the turkey, and rather than make a scene, I had meekly agreed. Donna's mother had offered me her apron "to protect my pretty skirt", and my hands were covered with goo as I helped her grandmother battle with the turkey. I was trying to think of a response when Donna came to my rescue.

"Anne works for a big drug company downtown," she said from across the kitchen.

"How did you girls meet? I always wonder how single women cope with living in Chicago. The last time I was there, I was scared to death, and it was only for an afternoon of shopping at Marshall Fields."