10 APR 26
“Boys! BOYS!”...
It’s a familiar call to quits that is almost universally ignored in the middle of any brotherly brawl or otherwise...
“Boys seriously! You’re about to knock off the... there it GOES!”...
Pause to catch the second of three framed prints falling off the wall this month... this one is more fortunate than the first...
The boys maybe subconsciously take their all-out wrestle to another part of the living room fortunately missing the top of the basement steps... and no further damage is committed...
“PANINI!” Puck suddenly announces more than requests as the energy of the brawl subsides and they are now hungry...
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!...
Some half hour later Yali is in the basement whacking nails into flat wooden posts gleaned from the old garden... Puck has placed an order for one of Yali’s now-many zombie-whacking sticks and Yali is taking the order seriously... out comes the tape to wrap up a handle... “I made it a longer whacking stick because Puck is so big” Yali explains with enthusiasm as he prepares to add glue to the nail holes for extra strength...
After a few more sporadic Math and Writing classes occasionally interrupted by...
...Puck testing out the fire extinguisher in the front yard which is of course entirely unnecessary... “It’s fine Mom... I just need to make sure it actually works”...
...Patience hoping for distraction from flashcards entices Puck into a conversation on how she thinks he looks like “one of those heads on the front of that mountain”...
...and of course Puck commandeering the end of Math class so I can make those plates of paninis... him in occasional disbelief of his little sister... “What... what are you... no no that’s a stupid answer”...
Give it another hour after the whole house pauses to watch the first episode of the “Malcolm in the Middle” reboot for lunch...
...and Puck is at Top Golf with J recently returned from Indiana...
...while Patience is at the park half-whimpering over a bloodied knee when Yali “pushed me too high on the swings!”... and she took that tumble... until she forgets about all that when she finds a pack of wish flowers in the grass...
Post-studio the jumble of us remaining at home are trying to scoot over to the Costco cafe for your average lazy-man’s Friday night dinner... kids throwing themselves into the van as Patience blasts into another story about...
“Patience... Patience... I can’t hear another exposé on your dance teacher’s press-on nails right now... I’m sorry...” // “Okay then... Dad! You’re up!...”
...and on and on she goes about those press-on nails as Bollywood tunes cook up on the radio and Yali is singing across his ear buds “Take on Me”... and Patience forgets the rest of her story mid-sentence to dissonantly harmonize with Yali while we coast towards paper plates of Costco pepperoni pizza before a campfire back home under molded evening cloud of rain blue and middle spring...
