“Why do we have to move?” Alice moans from the backseat. “Because back in New York all you did was look at that dang phone, and besides a fresh start would be good.” Mrs. Smith replies. “But they have a turkey festival!” Alice said with a slight raise in her voice, “who does that?” “Now don’t say that, you never know it might just be an adventure waiting to unfold,” Mrs. Smith says, looking back at the road. “ya , right,” Alice said, looking back at her phone, “are we almost there?” “We’ll be there in about an hour,” Mrs. Smith says, looking at the time. “Great,” Mrs. Smith gives her a look but keeps driving with a sigh.
“We’re here”, Mrs. Smith says, getting out of the car. “Yay,” Alice says sarcastically. “You might like it here,” Mrs. Smith starts, “you never know.” “oh, I think I know,” Alice says, getting her bags out of the car.
When they get into the house, Alice’s jaw drops. “You never said the house was this big!” “I said you’d like it,” laughs Mrs. Smith, “go pick out your room.” Alice then runs up the stairs to one of the rooms. “I call this room!” There was a knock on the door, Mrs. Smith answered it.
“Hi! My name’s Kat, I live across the street!” a girl said eagerly. “I must apologize for my daughter, she’s a talker, I’m James Rickman, by the way,” the man beside Kat said, holding out his hand. “Oh, it’s quite alright, I’m Lily, Lily Smith,” Mrs. Smith said, shaking his hand.
“Alice! Come down here!” Mrs. Smith says from the living room. “Coming!” Alice said rushing down. “I would like you to meet Mr. Rickman and his daughter, Kat.” “Hi! I’m Kat!” Kat says, holding out her hand. “um...Alice Smith,” Alice says, not shaking her hand. “Want me to show you around?” Kat asks, putting her hand back at her side. “Um…,” Alice looks at her mom, but she just nods her head, “oh, fine.” “Great!” Kat says practically jumping, as she grabs Alice’s hand, running out the door.
Kat took Alice around the block, “and that’s why we have the festival,” Kat says, finishing her endless talking. “So you have a festival to honor Thanksgiving because of some guy who thought of the idea to eat turkeys?” Alice asked. “Yep, pretty cool, right?” “Well I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Alice says trying not to offend her.
When they get back, Mrs. Smith asks Alice to go unpack, Alice then rushes upstairs dying to get away from Kat. When she’s gone, Mrs. Smith says, “I’m sorry if she came off a little harsh, she didn’t really want to move here.” “It’s fine,” Kat says, “well I’ll be off, homework needs doing,” she says walking out the door. Mr. Rickman waves then follows.
The next day Mrs. Smith makes pancakes for Alice since it’s her first day of a new school. When Alice comes down, there’s a knock on the door. “Alice, can you get that? I’m a little tied up at the moment,” Mrs. Smith asks. When Alice opens the door, Kat walks in, “are you ready for your first day of school?” “Well not really but at least tomorrow is the first day of break,” Alice answers, closing the door.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Smith motions for them to sit, as she plates the pancakes. “Thanks, mom,” mumbles Alice. “Yep,” Mrs. Smith says, kissing her head.
When they get to school, Kat introduces Alice to Mr. Gorge, her new teacher. “Well class we have a new student, I would like you all to meet Ms. Smith here, would you like to introduce yourself Ms. Smith?” “Not really,” Alice says, looking at her feet. “You can sit by Kat then,” Mr. Gorge, pointing to an empty seat.
Once Alice sits down, Mr. Gorge starts the lesson. To Alice the day seems to stand still, math, to reading, then science, next gym, and last art. “Luckily,” thought Alice, “I only have to do this once then I’m home free,” Kat walks over bringing her back to Earth. “We should go, they’re going to talk about the festival on the news soon.”
When they’re back at Alice's, Kat says, “let’s go to my house, my dad can tell your mom where we are.” “ok,” Alice says, starting to take a liking to Kat. Once they’re inside Kat turns on the T.V. there is a breaking news flash on the screen, “We have breaking news from Float Central! The Turkey float has been stolen, Mayor Jones says that without the float they’re going to have to cancel the festival.” when she finishes talking Kat turns off the T.V. and sits on the couch.
A few minutes later, Mr. Rickman comes in from the kitchen, “I’m going to be on double shifts, so we can find that turkey, okay?” “Can we help,” Alice says in a voice that she didn’t know she had. “Sorry, but that’s a job for the police,” Mr. Rickman says, grabbing his coat.
When he leaves, Alice grabs Kat’s arm and hoists her up. “What are you doing?” Kat chokes through her tears. “Ready to go turkey hunting?” Alice asks. “Dad said we couldn’t,” “so? We’re going to prove to him that we can help.” Kat looks excited, “so where do we start?” “well the turkey was in Float Central, right?” “ya?” “Then we go there,” Alice says grabbing her coat.
When they get to the building they start looking for clues, like footprints in the dust and trails of objects. They search for hours, when they start giving up, Alice yells, “look! I think those are footprints!” When Kat comes over she says, “you’re right!” They follow the trail, it leads to an old warehouse. “Should we go in?” Kat asks, looking nervous. “No, I think we should come back tomorrow when it’s brighter out.” “good thinking,” Kat says as they start walking away.
The next morning Alice rushes downstairs, wolfs down her breakfast and is out the door in an hour. Kat is waiting for her on her porch. “What took you so long,” she laughs. Alice zips up her coat and they go back to the warehouse.
At the warehouse Alice says, “you ready?” “ready as I’ll ever be,” Kat says, slightly trembling. When they go up to the warehouse they find that it’s locked, but when they go to the other side of the building they find the back door is unlocked. And with trembling hands they turn the door knob. When they enter they see that they’re alone. “Look!,” points Kat. At the middle of the building is a giant turkey.
“Quick call your dad!” Alice hurrys. When Kat pockets her phone she says, “he’s coming.”
When the police come Mrs. Smith runs to Alice, “are you crazy? Looking for a missing turkey? Do you know how dangerous that was?” “It was but I wanted to help the town as best I could,” Alice said beaming. Soon the cameras come and the news lady walks up to them, and looking at the camera she says, “I’m here with the two girls who solved this crime and brought back the turkey,” she turns to them, “we as the town thank you for your service.” “It was all Alice,” Kat says to the news lady. Alice then turned a bright red. “Well that’s it, Alice saved the whole festival,” the news lady said then walked off.
“This was really fun!” Alice declares on the way to the festival. “Ya, I’m so happy we got to chip in and help the city out.” Kat says. When they got to the festival, Alice looked at her mom, “it was just like you said, an adventure waiting to unfold.” Mrs. Smith smiles.