It's Be Thankful Day at the orphanage and none of the boys like it.
Brian did not want to get up out of bed. He wasn't looking forward to the day, in fact, he dreaded it. It was the first of the month. That meant it was "Be Thankful Day" at Father Joseph's School for Boys. None of them liked "Be Thankful Day".
“Today, you have a lot to be thankful for,” Father Joseph would tell them when they sat down to breakfast. “It's a brand new month. A chance to wipe away the mistakes of the last month and start fresh. You're alive!” he would say with enthusiasm. It made most of the boys tremble.
Today they would have to count their blessings. They would have to go through each of their belongings and "Be Thankful" for it. Then they would have to choose one thing that they cherished and bring it outside with them.
Outside, Father Joseph would inspect all of their items to make sure nobody cherished an old boot or something. Unless they had a good reason, like the boot belonged to their father who was killed in the war, or something.
They would march with their belonging and put it into one of the holes out back. There was a hole for each one of the boys and in each hole was a wooden box. One by one they would take their turn and place their cherished object into the next empty hole in the line.
Father Joseph would then assign each of the boys a hole. The boy whose object had been placed in the first hole would be assigned the last hole and so on down the line. Father Joseph said it was so that "the last shall be first and the first shall be last".
They would each go to their own hole then, and whatever object was in it now belonged to them. They were reminded that their new acquisition meant something special to one of the other boys. They were told to "Be Thankful" that they shared a home with friends that would give them such a treasure.
Then came the dreadful part. In order to ensure that the boys actually took some time to reflect upon these thoughts, Father Joseph made them lie down in the box that was in their hole. It might not have been so bad if it hadn't been for the lid. One by one Father Joseph would close the lid on each one of the boxes.
As the boys lay there inside these little coffins holding their new object, Father Joseph would say prayers of thanks. For fifteen minutes the boys would tremble and shake, terrified, as the priest went on about how they should "Be Thankful" that they were alive.
Brian did not want to get up out of bed. He hated "Be Thankful Day".
WEIRD RHODY is a short story collection featuring five strange tales all set in Rhode Island and written by five Rhode Island authors. The anthology is a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, the Ocean State's famed author of pulp horror.
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