Dinner for Thirteen

As we all sat around the table eating our semi-American Thanksgiving dinner, our mouths dropped in awe and our dinner of turkey smothered in gravy dropped with it. Something so offensive had been said, yet no one had the right words to say back in retaliation. “Why is that Jew on the stage?” the words kept ringing in our ears over and over but to keep off the tension, all we did was laugh. It was Thursday, Thanksgiving night, and we were in Hard Rock Café after a long day of touring Madrid. Everyone was so tired and ready to go to bed, but because we were hungry, we sat at the table preoccupied so much by our dying iPhones that no one even mumbled a word. The music seemed to be getting louder and louder, while the videos on the surrounding screens gradually went from tolerable to completely insane with every new song that played. As a new video came on, everyone stopped to stare in utter disgust because of how the music had suddenly taken such a turn. We all watched in awe as the artist danced around the stage half naked with his band, and the video kept taking twists and turns to different scenes and places. As I sat beside Alex, we both looked up at the video to see what looked like an Orthodox Jew playing a keyboard. Then the anti-Semitic words rolled loudly across the table, ”Why is that Jew on the stage?” No one spoke for a mere minute, everyone was shocked, not knowing what exactly to say. Then came a stifle, an awkward twitch in a seat, and then shortly after a few people started to laugh causing our whole end of the table to burst into loud cries. Not knowing how to handle the situation, laughter seemed like the only way out, the easiest way out, instead of actually trying to deal with what could and should have resulted into a large problem. The rest of the evening everyone spent laughing and having a great time. We all let the comment slide and what once had been something so offensive ended up bringing us closer together.