12 : By Process of Elimination
“Yali, come on! Let’s go keep thinking of ideas!”
Puck and Yali were busy at the Big House. Always more thoughts, always more plans. Thoughts on thoughts. Plans for plans. Their brains were always ticking.
Part of those thoughts still included trying to find a trash can that Oxbear could “fit through” for their secret hide-out/tornado shelter. And any other potential secret rooms that an old house might hold.
Sometime between pizza for lunch and chasing each other around the house with a whoopee cushion, the boys found the family bugles. I don’t even know why we have those old things, but they’ve been in the family for generations. And as we all know, the big one was once used in the Spanish American War, back in the day. So they bugled together for a little while until I made it end.
Back at the Silverspoon’s for another movie night. We began working through a stack of Rose’s DVDs via process of elimination.
“I nix The Haunting.”
“But you can’t, because I like it.”
“I’d kind of like to see The Magnificent Seven.”
“That’s just because you like bald men, Collette. Oxbear wouldn’t approve.”
“I vote for The Great Dictator.”
“No, Francis. We’ve seen that like a hundred times.”
Somehow we still whittled it down to The Magnificent Seven or The Great Dictator.
“Okay, Francis, how long are they?”
“The Great Dictator is … 55 minutes.”
“That doesn’t sound right.”
“And The Magnificent Seven is TWO HOURS.”
“The Great Dictator it is.”
“I win!” Francis exalted.
“And everyone else loses.”
Meanwhile, Puck had joined us for the party. Francis took him on in a wrestling match before the movie started.
“OW OW OW OW OW!” Francis yelled after about thirty seconds. “My knuckles! Puck just sat on my knuckles and they all smashed together!”
“Puck!” Collette congratulated him. “You just sent Uncle Francis to the pain station!”
Puck grinned. Finally victorious over his uncle.
So about an hour into the film, we realized that Francis had clearly read the label wrong. Fifty-five minutes quickly became two hours.