Thanksgiving memories

I'm a little foggy about all of the details, but some facts are clear as day....Gayle asked me to go to the store and pick up a turkey on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I think she borrowed the money from me. Somehow, I had been the only one home that evening and I had assumed that she would drive and I would make the run into the store since I was 16 and driving with a permit. Her clarification took me completely by surprise and caused instant fear in my gut: she wanted me to take her new Buick LeSabre to the store up on Murphy Road, in the rain, and buy food for Thanksgiving...by myself. I had NEVER pictured myself driving her car...ever, and I told her I was nervous about it. She didn't hesitate for one minute...just told me to do it (she said I'd be fine) and I did. The trip to the store went fairly well, without major mistakes, and I started to breathe a little easier after parking and going in to shop. It was late in the evening and raining like hell when I left the store and I had WAY too much to think about while going solo for the first time. The windows fogged up, the windshield wiper switch was unfamiliar, the car was new...ack, was I nervous and scared! Leaving the store, I was required to turn left across 2 lanes of traffic while watching the 2 lanes going the opposite direction. I didn't calculate my turn very well and skidded into the lane and almost got hit. The other driver honked at me like I was some kind of moron and I just shook...I couldn't help thinking about whether or not any of my classmates had ever had to do things like this for their families. Not likely. When I got home, I didn't mention the near-miss...just let her say, "See, I knew you'd be alright." I put the turkey in her bathtub to thaw and that's all I remember about that. I'm sure we had Thanksgiving dinner...late, as usual, and there probably was a fight, as usual, but I didn't know that it would be the last one spent at 1935 Adams or that Gayle would be dead in less than 3 months. I also didn't know that she had confidence in me until it was too late. I like to think that, in her way, she let me know that all of the teasing I'd been subject to was wrong and she was sorry for letting it happen. If she had been able to pull through all of her alcohol related complications, I know that our relationship would have been different and better.