Another Change
“Don’t forget about this,” El Oso reminded me of the Jimmy John’s bread loaf wrapped in a red kitchen towel on the counter. “Might make good croutons,” he advised. “Slice them thin, toast them. Add some cheese. Might go good with a soup…” “Why don’t I just throw in a roast duck and a pie on the side?” I suggested. I guess the idea of homemade croutons isn’t exactly overwhelming. I lived off cheese and bread the middle eleven years of my life. But I never warm up to the idea of extra work in the kitchen, especially not when stale food is numbered amongst the required ingredients. On that note, Puck and I returned to school.
Math was stalled towards the end. Puck had both eyes closed in a desperate attempt to teach himself how to wink. “I DID IT! I DID IT!” “Sort of…” I was growing a little tired of addition problems. “I DID IT! I DID IT!” “Almost…” Puck sighed, “Both eyes are winking, aren’t they?” Flashcards turned into Puck mock-advertising fast food and weather forecasts with numbers according to the cards’ answers: “Chick-Fil-A! Come and get your four chicken meal! … Today there is an eight percent chance of rain! … Get five burgers in each meal!”
Mondays are one of the fastest week days. Already Puck was scrubbing through a peanut butter sandwich, one hand plastered in macaroni and cheese themed band-aids from a Crackers attack earlier in the morning. Sometimes these things happen.
We continued post-Quiet Hour with readings in Ancient Greece while Puck snacked on a box of animal crackers, courtesy: Mom. “What do you think this one is, Mom?” “Uh … not sure. A bear?” “I think an ape … no, a giraffe, maybe?” I guess they don’t make animal crackers like they used to.
Colored pens for Puck, a new white and yellow zig-zagged notebook for me (# two hundred seven in my lifetime: a guess). Puck and I made the return to Target. And a box of La Croix in apple berry. “Get that one, Mom. You can tell this is a good one, because most of them are gone,” Puck heaved the box off the shelf.
Of course the biggest news of the past 24 hours had come from Uncle Balthasar. 27 years of work at the “Fabulous Fox,” 13 of them as President, and now he was leaving to become the CEO and President of the Starlight Theater in Kansas City. Kansas City. Another tear in the fabric of the St. Louis Snicketts tradition…
Puck’s Weekly What-do-You-Want-to-be-When-You-Grow-Up Status:
“Artist.”