A Thanksgiving Story

We volunteered at the Broadway Presbyterian Church for the morning, carving turkeys and setting up for the Thanksgiving dinner. A new crew of volunteers succeeded us and we headed later to Tout Va Bien, since there were only the three of us, making roasting a bird hardly worthwhile. Rain swept the city. We sat wet at one of their banquettes along the wall, next to a table of three men, one of them a musician at Radio City on a break between shows. They were there together for at least the second straight Thanksgiving. After a while, a single woman, mid-forties, came in and was seated on the other side of us. She ordered some champagne and after a few minutes mutually recognized one of the men from being in the restaurant at the same time last Thanksgiving. It´s a New York story too -- he invited this coincidental stranger to join them. She happily did and sometime later we left the four of them, enriching each others´ day, just what Thanksgiving should be.