My Boy (BWWM)

Thanksgiving Special

6 years ago:

Frankie was 10 and Ezra was 11, at the time. They decided that for their Thanksgiving, they decided to bring their family together. They decided everything: what each family was making, who was sitting were, and who was helping with cleaning up after. At Frankie's house (The Daniels' residence) her mom, her sister, and her were in the kitchen making their food for the dinner. Mom was chopping up sweet potatoes/yams, while Frankie and Kayla separated the greens.

In the Grant's house, Ezra was barking at his sisters to set the table right and make sure the dishes were spotless for the Daniels. While they were doing that, he was making the only dish that he could make: tacos. He knows it's not part of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but he remembered how much Frankie loved his tacos when they didn't have anything to eat at the time. He just really wanted to impress her and her family, since it was his first time meeting them.

A few hours later, the Daniels arrived at the Grant Mansion, with the three girls staring in awe. The Grants were standing in the porch waiting for their guests.

The girls get out the car, then Ezra and Frankie automatically embrace one another as the two families look at them with very different expressions. The Grants didn't know that his friend was one: black, and two: a girl, because her name is Frankie. The twins looked at the girl, then one another, with a smile and back at her before running up to the two as the rapidly talked to one another.

"I'm Vanessa," twin number one says.

"And I'm Jade," number two said. Vanessa had short dark brown, almost black hair while Jade had dirty blonde hair, and they both had brown eyes. They were both 9 at the time. As the families slowly moved towards one another, the Daniels and Grants greeted one another tersely, each only being nice for the sake of their children.

They gathered in the house and Ezra looked at Frankie's mom and sister, smiling widely at them. He sticks his hand out saying, "Hello ladies, I'm Ezra. Your daughter and sister's best friend."

The two young women smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Miss J, and this is my daughter Kayla. It's nice to meet you Ezra."

"It's nice to meet you too, and these are my sisters Vanessa and Jada." They each greet the two pretty black women with smiles. They all settle down at the dinning room table so that Ezra's dad was sitting at the head of the table across from Frankie's mother. Ezra's mom was sitting to the right of her husband while Kayla sat on the right to her mom. The twins sat beside their mother while Ezra and Frankie sat across from one another.

"Must we pray," Ezra's father said. Everyone joined hands and somehow Frankie ended up sitting by Ezra's dad, meaning she had to touch his hand. He joined hands with her and he rubbed Frankie's hand with his thumb, making her raise a brow before he started praying.

"Dearly beloved, thank you for this food we are about to receive. And thank you for having the Daniels with us on this fine Thanksgiving evening. We are thankful they are here. Please bless them and us with this food, Amen."

Everyone dug into the food. It was silent for about ten minutes before Mrs. Grant decided to start a conversation with Frankie's mom.

"So, Miss J, where do you work?"

"Oh, I work as a CFO to a sporting company."

"Oh, so you travel a lot?"

"Yes, I do."

"So, you leave your girls at home alone a lot?"

"Um..I'm sure my older daughter is old and responsible enough to watch my youngest daughter, you know since she's 16."

"Okay," that ended the convo real quickly.

"What about you?" Frankie's mom asked.

"Oh, I stay at home while my husband works on his privately owned construction company."

"That's..nice."

Throughout the dinner, the conversations sound the same with simple questions and terse answers.

"You know," Mr. Grant said, "I wasn't mentioned that Ezra's friend was black. If would have known, I would've made some fried chicken. Maybe even chopped up some watermelon along with it- y'all like watermelon, right?"

"Oh yes, it's because we are black that we like fried chicken and watermelon, and also some collard greens and baked beans with hot sauce, along with some kool aid." Frankie's sister exclaimed sarcastically. She wasn't only a young activist, but very passionate when it came to red neck crackers talking to black people like they are better that them. She was hoping her sister's friend's family wasn't like that, but that comment had her quiet manner break.

"I'm sorry," Mr. Grant asked with a raised eyebrow, looking surprised.

"Kayla!" Frankie's mother scolded.

Frankie snapped her gaze at Ezra, who was looking down at his lap with shame of his dad. She told Ezra that she didn't think it was a good idea to have their families intermingle for this specific reason, but he denied that his family were racist. Frankie felt tears clear her vision as her family started to argue with Mr. Grant and Mrs. Grant. Standing up so fast she knocked the chair down as she gained everyone's attention. She looked down with tears flowing down her cheeks as she yells out:

"I told you this would happen, Ezra!" She ran out the dinning room wiping her cheeks as she hiccuped. Ezra watched her run off before looking at his dad with a hard glare. He gets up and follows his best friend out the dining room, to find her sitting on the right stair case, sobbing quietly. He sat beside her and started to rub her back.

"I'm sorry Frankie," he said quietly. "I didn't know my dad was racist."

"I asked you to ask him," she said quietly.

"I know, please forgive me." He said. The Daniels walk out the dining room, looking for Frankie and Ezra.

"Come on, Frankie. We are leaving." Her mother says.

"I'm sorry for my father, Miss J." Ezra stands and walks over to the Daniels. "If I would have known he was like that then, I would've done things differently."

"Listen Ezra, I think you're a bright young man and I'm glad you are my daughters friend, but I cannot allow your father to treat us this way and I don't think I want my daughter around him unless you are there, okay?"

"Okay ma'am, I will never leave Frankie's side when she's here." Ezra knew he wasn't strong enough to talk back to his father then but one day he'd be able to.

"We are going to be leaving you now, thank you for having us."

"Okay, thank you for coming. I'll make sure your food and pans are brought back to you," Ezra says, giving a hug to Kayla and Frankie's mom.

As they leave, Frankie wraps her arms around Ezra.

"I can never stay mad at you, Ezzy." She whispers.

"I'm sorry, Frankie."

"It's okay."

Then she left, leaving him with his family, and the man who was supposed to act like a father.