A Communist Santa

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Sunday had been a good birthday. There had been sandwiches with provolone cheese for lunch and a viewing of “Harry Potter”. Then there was an opening of presents, which included: a soft white open tunic sweater with a tie in back from Carrie-Bri (it was very comfy), as well as a pair of vintage gold and peridot earrings with gold fringe, and a turquoise beaded bracelet, all very beautiful. Then there was an orange lollipop with a white stripe from Linnea and a necklace she had beaded herself with wooden beads in a blue and dark rose and a wrapped butterscotch on each end as ties.

The little kids always came up with very thoughtful gifts, every birthday and Christmas, including the pre-Christmas gift of toilet paper to Joe from Linnea, which he was, of course, thrilled with.

And then from everyone, there was a little pirate ship with a black flag, a tin of twenty-four good quality drawing pencils, a fondue pot for chocolate strawberries, and a book of pirates with wonderful pictures. They had all been very generous and thoughtful gifts. Only, she missed Joe’s original birthday card, hand-sketched cartoons in four blocks on the front page, as he always did for birthdays. He promised a late edition for her.

A beautiful Christmas drive followed, through Camelot and past the old tombstones right down the road, and the WindCastle, a little beyond. Then there was Outback and delicious food, where they had her birthday the previous year.

Monday had been slightly rough for Collette after having troubles in her exam among other frustrations. However, all in all, the day had been good, she had to admit. And a trip afterward, to Soulard Market, with Grandma, Mom, and the kids, had been very nice. Even OLeif had come for the day.

Soulard Market could always perk up a day, even a sunny day. In fact, it was one of those rare places that a sunny day made even better.

Most of the windows were shut that day, but some ends were open to the cold sunshine. The first wing was mostly closed down, however, there was a stand of flowers – lovely roses, bittersweet, winterberry, gerberas, and boughs of holly. And a little further down, where a young man in a striped knit cap played cards on a barrel, there were fruits and nuts.

“Excuse me, Sir,” Francis went right up to him. “Do you have any free samples today?” He asked very seriously.

The young man smiled broadly at him. “Well, what would you like a free sample of?”

Francis responded immediately, “Some of the nuts.”

“Take a big handful,” he replied. “You’re the first customers of the day.” And when Mom politely protested, he assured her, “Go right ahead. It’s the privilege of the first customers.”

And of course Francis began to stuff his pocket.

Then the kind young man gave Linnea an orange. And OLeif bought a crinkly brown paper bag of mixed nuts. Mom looked over some fruits and selected several, including a pomegranate for Rose.

Back inside, the little cafes and butcher shops were all closed, as well as the little stands for jewelry and hats, except for the spice shop. It always smelled so delicious inside, and Linnea and Francis soon returned with several papers of thin slices of salami. There were creamy white cheeses and meats inside, with wonderful jars of colorful spices and teas. Mom purchased a jam and some other “dainties” for the English’s Christmas present.

Then they chose another wing, including the animal store at the very end, where there were poison dart frogs (or at least, they looked like poison dart frogs), painted glass fish, and what appeared to be a miniature nautilus.

Carrie-Bri and Joe begged Mom for two little fuzzy mini-Rex bunnies, one in white and black speckles like cookies ‘n cream, and another in white with a black back half. But Mom told them to wait on it, and several grumpy children left the store.

However, they soon recovered, and Linnea and Francis were each given a peppermint candy cane at the candy stall. Then Mom bought ribbon candy and OLeif purchased three small white paper sacks of orange and cherry slices and Christmas candy.

Once over, they went back into the bitter wind and bright sunshine to Uncle Bill’s Pancake House where Joe ordered the chocolate Alaska, as Lucia had told him about, with three enormous pancakes covered in vanilla ice cream, fluffs of whipped cream, and a ladle of pure fudge. Collette tried the usual buttermilk pancakes, and the others went for omelottes and the day’s special – the hamburger club.

There was laughing and joking at the table, as usual. And Grandma presented Collette with her birthday present – a lovely journal with its cover made of green leaves and stripped and flattened bean pods. Then there was a beautiful set of note cards of Colorado wildflowers. They were very nice, and two had the flaming Indian paintbrushes, which she loved.

After that, they headed to a large carnival supply store. However, in the process, OLeif lost Grandma, Mom, Carrie-Bri, and Francis, in Grandma’s car right ahead. So the green slug lumbered along for three hours trying to figure out where they were.

During the long ride, Joe took a nap in the back seat while Rose in the front seat bantered back and forth with Linnea, sitting by Collette, over nonsense things. Their argument went thus, as it usually did, mixed with bouts of laughter in between:

“You’re a codfish!”

“You look like peanut butter and jelly smashed on the road!”

“You’re a rotten pickle!”

“You look like a duck that died twenty years ago!”

Once they tired of this charade, Rose settled back in her seat, and then turned around to ask for another Christmas candy. Once she popped the pink one in her mouth she grimaced and told Collette it tasted like cough medicine. And so, Collette offered her a white piece.

“Eeeeew,” Rose replied, and so OLeif took it.

“Try this one then,” Collette finally passed her a green piece, like glass.

Rose tried it for a minute, and then turned around again, “I got a dud; there’s no squishy stuff in the middle.”

“Rose,” Collette was busy reading The Velvet Room, “Maybe you sucked it all out before you cracked it open.”

“No! There’s no squishy stuff,” Rose insisted emphatically.

“We’ll discuss this later,” Collette finished, and returned to her book.

OLeif began to laugh at them, in the front seat. Then they were finally home and the caravan was reunited. They had finally managed to contact Shepherd through OLeif’s computer, as they had no cell phone, or remaining change for a pay phone. And after he called Carrie-Bri on her cell phone, they discovered that they had been home awhile by that time.

And yet, by the time they returned, they quickly forgot about the kerfuffle, although Grandma and Mom were quite frustrated with themselves. And there were sandwiches for dinner and snacks for later when Bing, Eve, and Annamaria, came over for the Christmas play. Then Eve and Annamaria would spend the night.

Dad began fixing his lunch for the following day, while Mom began to read Little House to the kids. Collette passed him in the kitchen with a bag of chips; she asked him if he wanted any to take with his lunch.

“No, no,” Dad put the mustard back into the fridge, “I’ll just get a honey bun from the vending machine.” He chuckled.

Collette laughed, “Oh, that sounds much healthier.”

Also, Diana had called earlier, saying that she couldn’t come.

“Sorry, Collette,” Diana rasped on the other line. “I’m just not feeling too good. Mom thinks I should just come home tonight and sleep. But I promised Velvet I’d help her make pumpkin bread for Christmas presents, like two weeks ago, so I really need to go over there.”

“Hey, that’s alright,” Collette told her, “we’ll get together another night. Besides, you don’t want to be getting sick right before you leave. That wouldn’t be any fun.”

“No,” Diana agreed, and then laughed, “but I’ll bring you some pumpkin bread on Wednesday. We’re making, like, fifty million loaves.”

Later, Carrie-Bri came upstairs, rummaging for more costume material.

“Collette, it’s going to be hilarious. We’re doing the play on Santa and he’s a Communist.” She laughed as she threw another piece of clothing into the red stack on the floor.

“Yeah,” OLeif laughed, “I saw Bing down there cutting up a beard and he told me, ‘Never been Santa… always wanted to…”’

Bing had a funny way of mumbling to himself, a sound that only Carrie could imitate. When they were little children playing together, before Bing’s voice had changed, she was the only one who could understand what he said. It was a funny thing.

And so, that was a night, and they left to the sounds of old Christmas music and hilarious laughter downstairs.

It was only two o’clock that Tuesday afternoon, and Collette was done with her work. The sun was already low in the western sky as the gray crept in. Their Canadian friends downstairs seemed to have left for the Christmas holidays, back up to the cold and French-ness of Canada. And there was no one left but the little lonely old man below on the other side.

The skies seemed heartily dreary with the sun only lighting half the sky.

She would soon be leaving for Peter’s surprise birthday party with OLeif and Carrie-Bri. It was not that she didn’t want to celebrate, it was only that it was not the partying spirit that she had ever possessed. Although it would be good to speak with Mercy again, after so long.

And Mrs. Pretzel would be there with Mr. Pretzel even though she continued her terrific bout with cancer. She was doing so much better. What a scare they had all had in the hospital waiting room back in October, while Mom and Dad were still in Europe.

Collette enjoyed the morning to herself, which was unusual. However, she could never put up with it long. It became too lonely. The long-ago fantasy of living as a hermit in Norway had seemed to vanish awhile ago. Yet there were still times when she fancied after it, during odd spells.

There was the thought of going back to the Tetons again the next summer, if Carrie-Bri was able to go to the Far East and back in time. Or perhaps they could once again visit the beautiful Maine, or try something new like up in Canada or Alaska. There was also New Mexico. If she knew Carrie-Bri (and she did all too well), it would likely be the beaches of some sandy southern place, as close to New Mexico as possible.

Then there was the fun of discussing world travel with Linnea. They had been discussing a year earlier how they would go on a world-wide trip once they saved enough. And the list of countries to visit would often shift, becoming relatively small (for example, visiting Italy for one week, Egypt for another, and Sri Lanka on the third), or they would become quite elaborate, perhaps six months around the globe.

Later, Judah Rye called. Collette did not answer the phone, as she did not recognize the number, however, he left a message offering them free tickets to hear the Bach Society the following evening, in which he would sing. Of course, neither of them could attend as OLeif worked too late, and Collette would be shopping in Old St. Charles with “the gang”. Bing was the perfect choice to whom to pass the tickets.

Collette wondered if Diana was feeling back to normal and if she had managed to bake enough pumpkin bread for all of her and Velvet’s Christmas presents.

Life seemed funny somehow. It was odd how so many little things seemed so very important at times, and then when one drew a step back and looked up and around and down, one could see how very little and insignificant it all was. And then, even seeing all the small things in the large scope, as one sees all the stars in the universe, one could see that even the small ones were important. They were all significant, in every respect. And once the world had ended, once each person passed on, they would be remembered, and would have been worth something. The trick was, knowing how to handle them all, not becoming engulfed by them to such an extent as to forget who one was, where one was heading, and what one’s purpose was.

Collette thought of their old English Country Dance instructors. There was always something exciting with Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey. When she first heard their names, she half-thought in the back of her mind that they might be Egyptian. They were a delightful couple. Mrs. Ramsey had short black hair and always wore big swishing skirts of satin and light airy cotton, and walked lightly, dancing beautifully. Mr. Ramsey seemed quite a bit older. His hair was white and he often wore a vest. He didn’t speak very much, but he had a kindly smile and a gentle but quick and happy way about him. Mrs. Ramsey was a professional match-maker for wealthy folks. They had always thought it was such an amusing career.

They traveled often and performed or taught lessons at weddings, on cruise ships, at ice cream socials, and lovely old dance halls. One weekend they had just returned from Denmark where they had taught several lessons. At the balls, Mrs. Ramsey would always wear ribbons and feathers and baubles in her hair and lovely old dresses taken right out of the late nineteenth century. Then there was the Shakespeare festival on the Green by Art Hill every summer. Once, she had joined them as the evening cooled, and musicians walked about and a fire-breather entertained the crowd near the stage before the play began.

And she remembered the little foyer where they had lessons every other Friday night and where they waited during their break, where the cold water machine sat. Sometimes they would walk down the hall to grab a soda for twenty-five cents. And one evening they looked over pictures of Strawberry’s family vacation to the southern beaches, of them all in old-fashioned swimsuits – Strawberry’s of white cotton, one she sewed herself – and of the beach house they stayed at, the dunes and reeds, and the large home-baked squares of pizza they shared one warm evening.

Then once the class had ended, they would linger awhile and discuss life and philosophy and laugh about it all. In the winter the guys would bring the ladies’ coats and scarves, and then every once in awhile there would be a stop for a sweet somewhere, or a movie at the Pretzel’s house. Those had been good days – “the philosophy days” as they were known.

At Peter’s party that evening, Collette was very surprised to find out that Mercy had been dating a fellow named Bob, Jr., since the week after Collette’s wedding in August. Apparently he was twenty-three and had just graduated from Lindenwood that month, a music performance major (in voice) and history.