A Cup of Cozy 2 - Thanksgiving Rebooted

It’s Thanksgiving so let’s talk turkey.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

As we’ve mentioned a time or two (or three or four) we contributors of this blog have all banded together to create a new holiday offering call A Cup of Cozy 2.

It’s a collection of heartwarming Christmas stories with fabulous holiday menus and recipes for your Christmas celebration.

And then there’s me.

Right. Not only am I the only one not doing a Christmas story (I volunteered don’t feel bad for me), but then they told me I would have to come with a holiday menu and recipes.

Okay, let me explain. I joke about my cooking, but I can cook.

For one person. It’s a different skill set.

Which makes sense because I’m single. I mean single, single, in that, I’ve never been married. Never even got close. That’s right, I’m a spinster. Although my mother preferred the term old maid.

Interesting sense of humor my mother had.

Another thing, I don’t entertain. I know some single people do, I salute you, but I do not have the gifting of being a hostess. That ship stopped with my sister, otherwise known as second coming of Betty Crocker.

Yeah, so why did I volunteer for Thanksgiving? Two reasons. One, it was my mother’s favorite holiday. Two, I don’t always think these things through.

So what did I come up with for my short story? Well I decided to use the characters from one of my existing series. The Reboot Files. You know the Scooby Doo type cozy. I call it Thanksgiving Rebooted.

So what’s it about? Well Irene and Troy, who are part of this paranormal investigation TV show, sort of, who have just finished bringing down these swamp zombies, yeah that swamp mud was no fun, and now they are trying to help the owner of a toy dog rescue. You see the dogs are disappearing and there’s this really big bird…

Oh forget it, here’s an excerpt.

“I’m afraid your clothes are not recoverable Irene.”

“That’s okay Patty,” Irene said, her good humor restored now that she was clean, “I’ll bill Bernie.”

Troy pointed out, “Remember we’re getting time off out of the deal.”

“That was for going to the swamp. Nothing was said about swamp mud destruction,” Irene countered.

“I said I was sorry.”

“You tripped her into the mud?”

Irene was quick to come to her partner’s defense explaining, “It was an accident. We were running from these zombies…”

“…not the brain eating kind,” Troy clarified.

“No, just the annoying chase you around the swamp kind.”

Patty’s expression was a study between confusion and horror. Seeing this Irene decided not to even try to explain what would take way too long to explain.

“The important thing is that I’m clean now. Patty how can we help you with your ‘weird’ problem?”

Patty seemed reluctant to drop the swamp zombies, but just then an inhuman earsplitting screech was heard.

“Oh no it’s back!”

Patty scrambled outside with The Reboot Team hard on her heels.

“It’s in the kennel area,” Patti cried as she ran down the steps of her porch.

Irene and Troy ran after her, and Troy got his camera ready.

They were half-way across the yard when suddenly a large shadow passed overhead. The Reboot team stopped and looked up and saw something big. Really BIG. Making loud birdlike screeching noises and…sparkling?

“Troy, what is that thing?”

“It’s not a turkey.”

“Not funny.”

“Well it does look like a bird,” Troy defended as he filmed, “Darn, it’s too far off. Whatever it is, it sure moves fast.”

He brought down the camera and Irene said, “Well you got pictures of it.”

“Not that it will do much good.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no point of perspective. We know it’s big, but because of camera tricks it could be dismissed as a fake.”

“That’s…convenient. Let’s catch up with Patty.”

It took them a few minutes to reach and then navigate the kennels where the dogs were all barking and wagging their tails excitedly. Irene looked around and frowned. Troy noticed but before he could ask her anything they saw a small group in front of a kennel cage. The heavy chain link door was off the hinges and the cage was empty.