A Warm Day in April

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Back on the ranch, that morning, Joe and Frances argued over who would clean up the kitchen trash can, whose contents the dog had spilled on the floor. To dismiss the smell, Joe ran through the house with a can of flowery air freshener singing the Chariots of Fire theme song, choking Linnea on the way through and spraying himself in the eye. Frances tied three bright red kite tails to the little oak in the front yard to watch the direction of the wind. Carrie scrubbed her hands in petroleum jelly and olive oil. And there were a few rounds of arm wrestling between Carrie, Mom, Frances, and Collette. (Carrie took each one, although Mom and Frances had equally fair showings.) Joe requested a calculator for the American history exam which Collette administered to him. And Frances practiced his choir tape, All Things Bright and Beautiful, adapting the words to aeroplane descriptions from his Ground Attack Planes library book.

Frances talked tanks, missiles, bombs, and planes all day long. Every time Collette saw him he had some new information on a piece of equipment or military strategy, all on which he had a strong opinion as to their effectiveness and durability. Usually the description of the latest missile would be compared to the strength of a former counterpart, and Frances’ conclusion would draw to a close with, That’s a lot of kick!.

Later, Joe batted some soft balls for Frances in the late morning of a highly warm April while Collette aided Carrie in her usual two and a half papers due for the day. Rose and Linnea planted a garden and fenced it off underneath the tree house. And the dog ate sidewalk chalk while Linnea drew on the back patio. A blue piece. In the evening, Collette, Rose, and Linnea attempted another game of badminton, but there were some bad bugs afoot. One yellow bee, which Collette and Linnea had charmingly named, Bumble, buzzed around dizzyingly towards the badminton net flying smack into Collette’s leg. Collette took off, raquet in hand, and Linnea told her afterwards that Bumble had followed her around the house. He apparently forgot his ill-sought revenge for being stupid enough to fly into her leg and completely ignored her while they played a small game of baseball before heading to youth.

Youth, however, had been canceled that night, unknown to OLeif, Collette, and Rose. And so they chatted with Jimmy next to the stink of the old silo across from the sunset. And then they drove by for some ice cream and a drive around Independence before dropping Rose back off to where Dad and Joe worked with levels on his Eagle project. And Wallace got his driver’s license.