A Visit
Thursday, May 12, 2011
In which Uncle Clarence and Aunt Galena return for a brief visit…
OLeif dropped off Collette at the house on his way in to work to assist with the interview for a buddy from his Wednesday night group.
Inside, Puck had just finished breakfast and demonstrated to Collette how he could tie Linnea’s bathrobe sash around the knobs of the kitchen chairs.
“How do you know how to tie knots?” Collette asked, bemused.
“Because he’s a boss, right Puck?” Carrie said.
“Right,” Puck replied with a grin.
Meanwhile, Francis was at breakfast with Henri and the boys, and returned to mow the front lawn.
The radio crackled out Mom’s old tunes of the 1930’s.
“I know why you’re stressed, Mom,” said Carrie, practically holding her ears. “This music…”
“Don’t you start,” Mom teased her back.
And Collette and Carrie-Bri got busy compiling the mailing of the day which took the entire morning and into the early part of the afternoon.
Following lunch, Francis took Puck out to mow the neighbor’s lawn. He sat with his uncle on the riding mower until the dust became too much and the heat was around 91 degrees Fahrenheit.
Errands.
Post office.
Rabbit food.
Kava tea for Grewe, who was in town to have surgery again, which they did not have…
In other news…
Catalina was to stay in Glasgow for another year. Afghanistan was not yet available.
Back at the house…
The neighbors behind them had continued to dress up the old house, chopping down a large tree in the back, planting bushes in the front, hanging curtains in the windows, working hard. The elderly gentleman of the house took a mat down to the back lawn and seemed to have a nap in the heat of the afternoon.
Then after Carrie had ‘kidnapped Puck to take him to Candyland’, of which Puck did not protest at all, Collette switched him into his chocolate plaid shorts, his emerald green ‘sandwich shirt’, and his chucks for the evening, while Carrie fixed his hair. Because…
Uncle Clarence and Aunt Galena were in town, briefly, on their way to pick up Samwise and Schroeder from MIZZOU. After graduation, Samwise would begin summer courses for his Law degree at Duke.
So after Dad had picked up Grandma Snicketts, they all (sans OLeif, Joe, and Rose) drove out to New Town to Uncle Balthasar’s and Aunt Tuuli’s. (Although Uncle Balthasar, who was voting in The Tony’s, was in New York, catching up on the rest of the plays of the season.)
Uncle Clarence and Aunt Galena looked well. They spoke briefly of South Carolina. St. Louis would, after all, always be home. Of the boys, and how Samwise’s girlfriend’s parents were coming from China for their graduation and then to visit them in South Carolina before returning home.
Aunt Corliss, Esther, and Blessing were not long behind. And the rest of the Balthasar family.
And while everyone caught up on various subjects, including the stubborn genetics of all the Snicketts boys and the royal wedding… Puck ran around with the twins, who were squealing happily, watched the cat, hungrily eyed the two bowls of Ghirardelli chocolates, and crossed his fingers, literally, as taught by his aunt, for the arrival of Liselotte.
When the Brit Black family did walk in the door, nearing eight, Liselotte was recovering from having fallen down and scraped her hands.
“Are you better yet, Liselotte?” Puck called across the room.
She stopped drinking her glass of water and replied, “Soon.”
It was not long before they were playing together as usual, as if they had never been apart.
Aside from sodas and lemonade, Bristol stood guard by a platter of very tempting cookies. Sugar cookies iced as honey bees and butterflies. Soft-baked: double chocolate chocolate chip, sugar with mini M’nMs, chocolate with mini M’nms, and gooey butter cake cookies. Oh, the bliss… And now that Collette had graduated to a 75% protein/25% carb diet, life was looking a little brighter.
On the way home, lightening flickered in the west.
“I like drinking flowers.”
— Sun