A Parish in the City

It was Puck’s favorite time of the day. Collette brought out the vacuum cleaner to the living room. Puck plopped down his chubby self to get a front row seat. As soon as Collette plugged in the vacuum, a grin lit up his face. For the next several minutes he examined Collette’s vacuuming skills, as she swept it over the rug.
The first official day of the Beijing Olympics began with a sweep of the medals by the American women in fencing. As usual, Collette had been sucked in to the world of the 29th Olympiad.
And that was the way Collette spent most of her day, at the Silverspoon’s, with enchiladas and Italian ices, watching all the sports.
She forwent the continued coverage from Beijing when she, OLeif, and Puck drove downtown to see Iwo and Strawberry’s new home – the old Vietnamese Catholic parish. It was impressive. Strawberry had plans to create a two-story trapeze room in the back of the house. The Arch could be seen from the third story loft. And two giant holly trees grew in the side yard.
That evening Joe and Rose dropped in to watch the Olympics with Collette, while OLeif worked on a slide show for the mission trip presentation at church on Sunday. After Michael Phelps recorded another world record after winning his first gold medal of the games, men’s gymnastics began to air.
“I never understood the purpose of the pommel horse” Collette was saying, “It looks like they were going to use it for something else, and then changed their minds.”
“Looks like they were going to use it for a ladder” said Joe.
“Looks like they’re trying to get away from a spider when they’re on that thing,” Rose said.
It was, indeed, an unusual dance.