21 OCT 25
It's a sleepy house that cracks into a cold morning of work... pot of soft-boiled eggs on the stove...
...Patience walks out of her room snuggled into a secondhand Alaska hoodie from her aunt... clacking her press-on nails together... she's already drawing a caricature of “Puck the Skinny Green Bullfrog” as he prepares to leave for another neighborhood run...
“Is she on drugs?” he laughs in a manner of disbelief perusing her artistic installment... “What am I looking at here?”
While Puck is busy preparing “for Army”...
...kids are yelling at each other for awhile... enough to send them to Principal Dad in the basement...
...after which Yali is feeling improved and hunts up his new slingshot for a demonstration on his break... “Mom! Come outside and see me slingshot this thing over the hedge!” // “Uh... okay...?” **thinking it probably won't fly that far... probably...** // Yali tucks the mini pool ball into the cradle of the slingshot as he steps out to the golden-yellow of the morning sun... “What a beautiful day out...” he notes... “It would be a shame if... something would... happen to it...” **whirl whirl whirl : RELEASE!**... pool ball is gone... and we don't know where it went... but there is no shattering of glass... no car alarms... so... “Let's not do that again though... okay?”...
We're back in class... Yali's readings from Genesis send him to realms that just don't exist there... “May the... force... be with you?”
...followed by learnings on Rip Van Winkle and rotting log microhabitats and how fireworks are made...
After noon Yali and Patience are both spinning up flour and yeast and things in the kitchen to prepare homemade pizza dough after a sudden inspiration following a viewing of “Reading Rainbow”... just the two of them...
A couple of hours later Puck notices the splat of cheddar-topped pizza cooling on the counter... “What is this?” **takes a hesitant bite as Patience watches him hopefully** “Wow... it looks horrendous... but it tastes really good” // “YAY!”... Patience's greatest triumph... convincing her oldest brother to try her cooking...
And somehow the sun is sinking into shadow already with everyone split four ways while Yali dresses in his finest Hogwarts student attire... cape included... for some evening grocery shopping...
