Holiday Numbers

Holiday Numbers


After 2 whole helpings, 4 desserts and

3 retellings of the Thanksgiving disaster

from 6 years ago, we begged Mom

to take us shopping in the morning.





She said No but we have her composite number:

12 Pleases and she caved in,

defeated. Dad’s an 8, Grandpa’s a 6;

My sister Claire is irrational.





Early the next morning, the 5 of us,

our stomachs bulging like trapezoids,

piled into the RAV 4 and drove down

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">route 99 right to the Square 1 Mall.

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<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">The associative property of the mall on

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">Black Friday is amazing: mixed numbers

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">of people in huge lines are already

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">angling around even before 5 AM.

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<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">With all the sales, every product becomes a factor,

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">even the imaginary: Claire tried

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">to fit into size 5 jeans. I guess 70% off is

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">appealing when your pants are too tight.

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<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">After buying a lot of stuff we didn’t need,

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">we carried 8 stuffed bags to our car

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">parked in section 22, drove 6 blocks and

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">stopped at the 7-11 for gas.

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<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">When we arrived back at our house and

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">stumbled through the door, we were

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">greeted by our 3 dogs. Exhausted,

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in">we managed 1 “Thanks, Mom.”