In an undisclosed location…
OFFICIAL TOTALLY REAL TPS CLAY OFFICES, INC.
A small explosion rocketed the Humor floor, and a small amount of smoke slowly exhaled underneath the door of the perpetrator’s office. Inside, a now unrecognizable machine and a soot-covered columnist stood amidst the wreckage.
A banging noise sounded from the next door office.
“Adam? Keep it down, will you? You’ve got neighbors, you know.”
“Sorry, Ian. I’m done tinkering today anyway.”
Adam swept the mess from his now non-functional time travel device into the corner, and pulled out a vacuum cleaner.
After the cleaning montage, Adam received a message on his fax machine, written in neat cursive: “Please report to my office.”
It was definitely Cara.
He took a deep breath outside of her door and opened it. Inside was a massive oak desk, and stacked on top of it were a couple of fantasy series, along with a pamphlet named “The Editor’s Guide to Editing.” The Humor editor herself was slowly rotating in a very evil-looking and intimidating spinny chair. When it finally stopped, she was facing forward.
Shaking her head, she said, “That’s the third time this week.”
Adam sheepishly replied, “I’m sorry, it was an accident. I’ll try not to do it again.”
Sighing deeply and looking very tired, Cara said, “Just saying, it’ll take more than an apology next time. I have a feeling the fashion columnists are still annoyed by your last explosion and the resulting mess.”
She continued, “Good thing that’s not what I called you about. Go round up everyone; it’s time to get our Thanksgiving dinner event together.”
“Sure thing!” Adam bounded out the door before Cara could continue with her reprimand.
Adam poked his head into Ian’s room. It was filled with about 12 TTV cameras, all apparently focused on different parts of his ant’s colony. On a cartooning desk, Ian was busy drawing.
“Hey, bud, it’s time for the thingy.”
Ian turned to him
“The thingy?”
“Yeah, the… whatchamacallit, meal…”
“Oh, the Humor team’s annual Thanksgiving remembrance meal? I’ll be there in a second,” Ian replied.
“Oh, out of curiosity, what are you bringing?” Adam asked rather snoopily.
“Burritos are Thanksgiving food, right?” Ian asked.
After a second, Adam replied, “Yes. Yes they are.”
————
Sabina’s room smelled of chocolate chips and cookies. On her desk lay a bowl of cookie dough, a large cup of chocolate chips, and a few copies of her published novel, all signed by the author.
When asked what she was planning on bringing, she replied, “Oh, that’s a secret.”
Adam noticed that the oven she had in her office was baking furiously.
————
Samantha’s room had a large projector screen, playing old black-and-white silent films. They had once tried to do a movie evening in her office, which had turned out rather unexpectedly with everyone dying with laughter. For some reason, when the dialogue appeared on the screen without anyone saying the lines, everyone thought it was just the funniest thing in the world and began to bowl over and laugh so hard that even their natural senses of school-induced stress seemed to leave them.
An absolutely delicious smell wafted through the air as the smell of pastry filled the air. Adam reminded her quickly of the upcoming event, and once she nodded in assent, he continued to the next office.
————
Cary’s office door was rendered ajar, and Adam peeked inside. He was out at the moment, it seemed, so Adam didn’t stop very long to look. He did notice that, next to his desk, was a small stack of Cary’s favorite books. Other than that, it was nicely kept, and the walls had recently been painted a very pleasant shade of green, his favorite color.
Having reminded as many people as he could, Adam returned to the common area. The team began to assemble and take their seats around one of those large round plastic tables, and one by one, the aluminum wrapping came off of their platters to reveal the delicious foods inside. They decided that they would wait for Cary to eat, but they would reveal their dishes before he arrived.
“Guess what I made!!!” Sabina exclaimed excitedly. She whipped the foil off of her plate and, lo and behold, there lay a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Everyone pretended to be surprised, even though she had made so many cookies in the last few weeks that everyone was beginning to get tired of them. Since they were, as always, really good, everyone snagged a cookie before looking to Sabina’s right for the next reveal.
Samantha went next; on her plate laid a bunch of scrumptious-looking muffins. Each kind of muffin was organized into neat little circles, with folded up paper note cards stating the flavors: carrot-raisin, pumpkin-cream cheese, and cinnamon-apple.
Adam, without thinking, asked, “Are they store bought or homemade?”
The lights darkened and began flickering. Samantha’s left eye twitched. A moment of pure, horrible silence went by before Adam, putting two and two together, remembered that her office oven had been on when he had checked with her earlier.
“I was kidding, of course. They’re homemade, right?”
The lights returned to normal, and Samatha shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, they are.”
Ian was next. He unwrapped his burritos, and everyone stared for a second.
Ian said, “Hey, I mean, who doesn’t like burritos? I’ve got chicken, steak, pork, and veggie ones. What’s there not to love?”
No one disagreed, but they all thought there was something just a little bit weird about having burritos for a Thanksgiving meal.
“Cara, you’re next.”
Everyone turned and found that Cara was standing right next to the microwave, waiting. After the ding, she pulled out a large tub of macaroni and cheese. The smell was immediately recognizable as the smell belonging to the iconic Kraft brand.
“It’s mac-n-cheese, guys!” Cara asked, smiling at everyone.
Laughter burst out from the rest of the group.
“True, true, you’ve gotta love mac-n-cheese…” Adam chuckled.
After the laughter died down, he stood up, and said, “No one, as of yet, has brought a proper Thanksgiving item. They’ve all been funny, quirky, or simply delicious foods, but they aren’t Thanksgiving foods.”
He cleared his throat. Then, with a smile, he continued ecstatically, “And I did the exact same thing! Introducing…” He pulled a paper bag from underneath his seat and dumped the contents onto the table: “Good ol’ Bojangle’s biscuit sandwiches! The ones wrapped in white paper are normal; the red paper-wrapped ones are cajun fried chicken sandwiches!”
Cara sat down and smiled. “Looks like we have some dessert, side dishes, and…fast food! All we’re missing is one cartoonist.”
Suddenly, a door at the end of the hall banged closed.
From down the hall came the jovial, grinning face of Cary, who began, “Sorry I’m late, everybody! I had to figure out this whole turkey delivery thing, so it took a while.”
Everyone burst into applause, cheers, and laughter, while a confused Cary awkwardly stepped over to the counter next to the common oven and put the turkey on a large plate.
Thus were the occurrences leading up to the lovely Thanksgiving meal that the Humor team greatly enjoyed together.
Big thanks to Sabina, Samantha, Ian, Cary, and Cara, who were all super cool with giving me information to use in this article! Make sure to check out their bios and articles!
Photo Credits: https://www.parents.com/syndication/heres-when-a-charlie-brown-thanksgiving-will-air-on-abc/