Ains sui toz a son voloir, ne l'en desdi,
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
It was another perfect October day. The rain was misting and the yellow leaves were washed up along the pavement.
Carrie had returned home the previous morning, having driven since five in the morning. She got back just in time to discover that she also worked that same afternoon. But before leaving, she was convinced to join Rose in Egypt after Christmas. The trip seemed almost in the bag, provided the plane was not full. They would have confirmation by Friday.
In news of the morning, Mom drove Collette to Collette’s cardiologist appointment in the city. Kim Jong Il was being the usual nutcase that he was. And the Cardinal’s had been shipped back to New York.
The rest of the day took a busy turn as Mom and Collette stopped by Trader Joe’s on the way back to find the usual treasures – sparkling pomegranate juice for Carrie (and organic broccoli, which she seemed to like somehow), double-Brie, assorted pears (even red ones), egg rolls, and other such things.
And after picking up Rose from class (where her professor was being interviewed for the six o’clock news for his political view regarding some bribe in St. Peters City Hall), they dropped off Linnea at choir, went to Walgreens for Carrie to get her passport photos, to Target where Mom bought Collette a pair of jeans and two nice tops (and where Rose snuck in a bag of blow-pops), back to pick up Linnea from choir, and then to the post office off 5th Street for the girls to get their passports.
Collette found it odd that they did not send the girls into a separate room to fill out the paperwork. Apparently it was no longer necessary, and one of the ladies at the desk sorted everything right there among the packages and stamps. Five years before, Collette had been escorted to a separate office where only she, Mom, and the clerk had been present.
Meanwhile, as they had been conducting paperwork, the sky had darkened even more. A great dark front had moved in from the west while they were inside. And just as they began to leave, the wind picked up and blew the leaves across the road. The temperature had immediately begun to drop and it was suddenly cold. A perfect afternoon.
They picked up two cases of White Castles on the way back, just in time to arrive back at the house where Mom picked up Frances and drove him and Linnea to choir and youth. Joe had also returned awhile before from the Green Lantern, where he had begun his new job. And Carrie jokingly tried to sneak off to the coffeehouse to meet Elizabeth with Dad’s new car.
“Oh, come on, Dad,” she teased. “You know I’m going to have to drive it sometime.”
“No one drives the car,” Dad said.
“Oooohhhh…” Carrie giggled, stroking the new car key’s automatic buttons.
“Carrie…” Dad warned.
Carrie laughed and went off to find Joe who had the Civic keys.
Meanwhile, Rose was making plans to construct a fountain for her personalized project in Ceramics. She would have begun an earlier start on in that week, but the sewer system had backed up in the Arts Center, and she was obliged to wait.