It was getting close to Thanksgiving and as usual the Learys were discussing Thanksgiving dinner. None of them liked turkey, but in the end they always decided to have it. porter's three teenage children were coming to stay for Thanksgiving, and Rose thought she might invite Julian Edge too. Poor Julian, she said,was on his own and might enjoy a family dinner
This alarmed Macon. Julian was often stopping by to take Rose this place or that, and Macon suspected him of amusing himself with another member of the peculiar Leary family. But Julian always behaved very politely with Rose, almost shy, and clumsy about opening doors. Macon hoped that rose was not having any foolish thoughts about love, but she was so plain and sensible there was surely no need to worry.
On Thanksgiving morning Macon came down to the kitchen where Rose was giving breakfast to porter's children. He said, 'Rose, I thought I could smell turkey cooking in the night.'
'You could,' Rose said. 'I'm trying this new way of cooking meat. It saves electricity. You set the temperature extremely low and cook the meat all night .'
'But it won't be properly cooked,' Macon said.
'It will murder us,' said Charles.
'You're both wrong,' Rose said . 'It going to be delicious.'
Maybe it was, but it certainly didn't look it. By dinnertime the middle of the bird had fallen in and the skin wass all dry and dull.
Rose carried the bird in and put it on the table.
'Ah, look at that!' Julian said enthusiastically. He was the only person at the table who didn't know how the turkey had been cooked.
'Well, there may be a little problem,' Macon said. Rose looked at him angrily.
'The Vegetables are excellent,' he said. 'But the turkey...'
'Is just poison,' Donny finished for him. At sixteen, he was the oldest of Porter's children, and already as tall as Porter.
'It's been cooked at too low a temperature,' Macon explained.
'I think it looks delicious,' Julian said.
'Yes,' Porter told him. 'But you don't know about the other times - the chicken salad that was left out all night and...'
Rose sat down. Her eye filledwith tears. 'Oh,' She said, 'you're all so mean! You don't fool me for a moment. You're just trying to make me look bad in front of Julian. You know perfectly well there's nothing wrong with that turkey. You just don't want me to stop cooking for you and taking care of this house, you don't want Julian to fall in love with me.'
'Do what?'
But she pushed her chair back and ran from the room the room . Julian sat there with his mouth open.
'Don't you dare laugh,' Macon told him. 'Don't even think about it.'
Julian Swallowed. 'Do you think I should go after her?'
'No. She's fine. Now, who wants a baked potatoes with vegetables, and Macon then turned to Julian.
'Julian? Potato?'
'I'll take the turkey,' Julian said firmly.
At that moment Macon almost liked the man.