Written by Rodge Garcia

Illustrated by Cristo Alvarado

2011, La Joya, Texas

P A G E 1

One day before thanksgiving me and my family went to buy a huge turkey to kill by the big day…Dia del pavo!!! We bought the turkey and the farmer who sold it to us said something that we dismissed because we were too excited about the turkey. On our way home, I was thinking about what he told us. “We call this turkey, Turkey Slaughter. Don’t ask why. You’ll find out for yourself.” He knew something we didn’t.

P A G E 2

We got home and we were very excited, messing with the huge turkey, and just waiting to kill it on the big day. When we all went to sleep that night, I had the strangest dream. I dreamed about the turkey we bought. I was poking at it all the time for some weird reason. Then, the turkey was poking me in my dream!

P A G E 3

It was enormous, way bigger than me, and it chased me while poking me with his beak. I screamed in horror and ran inside my house in pain looking for my family. I was devastated at what I saw. My entire family had been slaughtered! I just wanted to wake up already, so I screamed. I woke up with a panic running all through my blood cells. Minutes later, after realizing it was just a dream, I went back to sleep.

P A G E 4

Thanksgiving Day arrived and I woke up still thinking about my dream. I headed to the kitchen where I saw my whole family together. I was relieved knowing they were fine. They all stared at me and I noticed they seemed upset. “What’s wrong?” I asked them. “Someone stole our turkey! It’s no longer outside!” They told me.

P A G E 5

I became furious that I didn’t have a turkey for Thanksgiving anymore. All of a sudden, we heard huge footsteps like if something big was coming toward us. I panicked right away and ran outside looking for somewhere safe to hide. When I looked up I saw the enormous turkey of my dreams. My dream became reality and I ran for my life screaming in horror because that huge turkey was speaking to me while it chased me.

P A G E 6

“So, you were planning to slaughter me alive?!” I was speechless and ran even faster inside my house where my family was nowhere to be found. Devastated and hopeless, I stood still outside waiting for the Turkey Slaughter to finish me too. The last words it said to me were, “Now who’s picking on who?!?” I fell on my knees and within seconds I was lying dead on the floor. Let this be a lesson to all of you. Vegetarians RULE!

© 2011

A young boy dreams of preparing his first fresh from the farm turkey, but gets the devastating surprise of a lifetime.

A chilling story of a holiday gone wrong.

“A vegetarians dream.” ~ Vicky Gonzalez

“Disturbing.” ~ Says Zombie.

“Not for the faint hearted.” ~ Ruby Red

“Entertaining and weird.” ~ YazWar