6 : All Quiet on the Western Front
I certainly didn’t bring up the subject of chocolate that morning. I rarely mention chocolate anymore around the Chocolate Gestapo. But Puck must have already read my thoughts.
“Mom. You’ve eaten MORE CHOCOLATE than Dad and me… COMBINED!”
I definitely could not argue that suggestion. But I also didn’t let the topic linger. No reason to feel the guilt longer than necessary. I just steered Puck towards breakfast.
Things were suddenly a little more quiet than they had been all summer. This meant Carrie-Bri and I had plenty of time to record a podcast between Mom and Carrie painting Irish’s old room. One of her oldest pals, Cherry from Iowa, was coming to live with the family for awhile during college. And she would temporarily inherit the old room that was mine first, then Elmer’s, Francis’, Rose’s, Irish’s, and now Cherry’s.
While we were all busy doing these things, Francis – recently back from a six mile run, admiring the fact that his shirt was almost entirely soaked in sweat – kept an eye on the boys for me.
“Okay,” he said, marching up the stairs. “Time for Uncle Francis’ babysitting service.”
An hour later they were still hooked on another episode of “The Magic School Bus” – all three of them. And something about popsicles. A lot of popsicles.
Around noon everyone took a break from these activities for Carrie’s lunch – a Saudi Arabian dish – which even Francis enjoyed.
And before I got the boys back on the road, Puck got busy helping – “helping” – Francis and Irish sort through all the junk in their rooms. Each piece he selected from the “up for grabs” pile was, of course, invaluable to his collection of “random pieces from other peoples’ lives”. This included a vest that Francis had worn maybe once in his life. He buttoned it up over his shark t-shirt, blue basketball shorts, and knee-high dress socks. He has his own style.
“I look like a TV show host,” he said to me. “Do I look good, Mom?”
“You do to me, bud. Pretty sharp.”
Several hours later… it was just me and the boys around that night. Theodore and Gloria had hit the road for Nashville earlier in the day, and Oxbear was at a work party. So once the boys were down, it was just me, myself, and a little baseball.