Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I have the leftovers filling up the fridge to prove it. I didn't end up going on a tropical cruise like I suggested to Merl back in October.

I don't know- when it boiled down to it, I just didn't want to miss the usual family gettogether at my nephew's. The truth is, I'm an old softie when it comes to friends and family. Plus my nephew lets me take home a hefty supply of turkey and pie. Sometimes that's even better than the original.

When my regular walking group, the Walkie Talkies, got together for our first walk after the holiday, of course we had to fill each other in as we crunched through the brittle brown leaves carpeting the town's sidewalks.

Myrtle's grown children and her grandchildren had been in town, which always gives Myrtle the heebie-jeebies. The grandchildren are fine, but Myrtle doesn't get along too well with her children, especially her daughter, who is a control freak. That's why Myrtle always invites our single friend Grace over for the big dinner, as a buffer.

"It was going great," said Myrtle, "until they brought up my moving out of the big house and into a 'retirement village' again."

"What?" squeaked Pepper. "Myrtle, you're not that old," then she paused. "Are you?"

"Of course I'm not!" snapped Myrtle, although she may be. I didn't say that of course.

We also talked about Pearl's family get-together. Usually everyone comes to Pearl's house, but this year everybody went to her cousin's. I thought that was strange, but Pearl didn't say why. In fact, she was pretty quiet the whole time.

We asked Pepper about her experiment with "taking the holiday off" and not visiting any relatives or doing any cooking.

"Best weekend of my life," she said. "I watched eight movies and read two books."

We walked in silence, trying to imagine such luxury.

Meanwhile, Roberta was being awfully quiet. She never had gotten around to confessing to the Walkie Talkies that the innocent ski trip she had schemed-up for Thanksgiving was not a chance to get away by herself, but was actually arranged by a man she had met on-line. I knew it would come up eventually and was dying to hear the response.

Finally Pepper piped up, "Hey, Roberta- how was that skiing trip of yours?"

Roberta looked at me out of the corner of her eye and hesitated slightly.

Good, here it comes, I thought.

"Well..." Roberta said, drawing out the word. "Actually I met a man while I was there."

"What?" a chorus of voices rang out, and the group stopped short to stare at her.

"Roberta, how wonderful!" Pepper practically squealed like a teenager. "Do you like him? Who is he, anyway?"

"His name is Brian, and I think I do like him," Roberta admitted, beaming for a moment before blushing uncharacteristically and starting up the walk again. "He's a divorced history teacher at a community college about three hours from here. Let's see, he likes photography and bluegrass music and skiing. We met the first day I was there, and what can I say... We spent almost the whole weekend together." I noticed Roberta was no longer looking in my direction.

"He sounds perfect for you Roberta," Pepper announced loudly. "How did you meet him?"

Finally. Roberta may have been trying to avoid that little detail, but the Walkie Talkies would never let her get away with it.

There was a slight pause before Roberta responded, though she was looking straight forward, keeping up her brisk pace. "Oh, it wasn't such a big deal. Right after I checked in I went down to the lounge and got a cup of hot chocolate and sat in front of the fireplace looking out at the mountain. By the way, it was gorgeous there and the weather was great- perfect for skiing." She was stalling. Roberta doesn't know anything about skiing weather. "Anyway, I was just sitting there relaxing when Brian came up and introduced himself. The rest is, well, you know... history."

Well, I'll be. The usually cocky Ms. Roberta Hogg was afraid to admit to the Walkie Talkies that this was a preplanned, computer-generated get-away. I looked over at her but she was avoiding eye contact, with good reason. Well, it's not like she exactly lied. I'm sure the way she told it was pretty much how it unfolded. She just left out the itsy bitsy part about her meeting him on the computer beforehand and knowing he would be there.

Okay, so she's not ready to tell that story yet. Whenever she does tell, the Walkie Talkies won't mind. Like me, when it comes to friends, they're a bunch of old softies. Anyway, I don't get to decide how everything in life unfolds, and thank goodness I don't. You never know, the leftover tale may be the best.

")