The Turkey Hunt
The Last Laugh
October/November 1996
By Edward Stern
As I drove up Highway 27 heading toward Northern Michigan, I was enjoying a late fall day, the kind just sunny enough that if you wanted to (and I did), you could stick your hand out the window and feel the crisp air passing through your fingers without being cold. It was gorgeous, and so was she.
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Her name was Jennifer Johnson. I met her at a grocery store in East Lansing, Michigan, the year before.
I had been hopelessly shopping for food for my first Thanksgiving dinner away from home when I spotted her. "Pardon me," I said, "could you tell me which one of these turkeys is the best?"
Slightly startled, she smiled and explained patiently, "Well, I like them a little fresher than all of these, but if you have to, I'd go with that one" I accepted the bird of her choice, and then managed to wrangle her phone number out of the deal. We went out the next weekend, then the weekend after that, and then the weekend after that. A year later she was sitting next to me in the passenger seat with her hand dangling out of the window as well. "Are you nervous?" she asked. "Of course not," I laughed, lying.
"Good," she smiled, "Everybody's so excited to meet you.
" A few hours later we arrived at the Johnson's farm. "There's where we keep the goats;" she said happily as we drove up the gravel road to the house, "and there's the pond where I learned how to swim, and there's my brother's hunting shed, and there's my dog, and there," she pointed, "is my mom and dad!" As we pulled up, Jennifer's mother, father, sister Loraine, and brothers Ben, Tom, and Rick came up to the car.
After all the greetings were made and dinner was had, we sat in the living room and talked for a while, and to be quite honest I was feeling pretty good about things.
As the evening came to a close, it was time to say goodnight.
"It was very nice to meet you, Mr. Johnson," I said to Jen's father. "Likewise Ed. Now you be sure to get yourself some sleep, you're going to have to be up pretty early in the morning.
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