Bar Fights, Spoils, Toad Weddings

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Church was typical that morning. OLeif and a number of the youth crowded together before the service to talk over things.

“I was in a bar fight last night,” Augustus said, blue eyes wide.

“He was,” Molly sighed. “I was there.”

“This guy called me a girl. So I punched him in the face. Then he smashed a bottle over my head. And then I kicked him in the shins.”

“Right….” OLeif laughed at him. “Actually, he called you a girl and you screamed and ran away.”

After Scott Hamilton Pie had preached the sermon, (Sinai and Rosie still being in Egypt), OLeif went off to lunch at Moe’s with Tennessee and Joe. And Collette and Puck spent the afternoon over at the house.

During the course of the next hours, Francis and Linnea spent their time attempting to launch a kite in the late windless afternoon sunshine. After several hours of good hard tries, they put away the kite for a windier day. And both Francis and Rose were crispy red from their hours under the sun at the rummage sale the previous afternoon.

Inside, Carrie had just returned from Columns.

“You know Damian, the Argentine?” She was saying, in reference to one of the newer staff. “Well, Elizabeth went into the bathroom at Columns the other day. And he was in there just washing his hands. When Elizabeth told him that he was in the girls’ bathroom, he just kind of looked at her confused. I mean, the walls are pink in there and flowers. He just doesn’t get things.”

Meanwhile, OLeif had been holding Puck for a spell after returning from lunch. They were watching the toads in Rose’s tank.

“Puck is the great Buddha,” OLeif told Rose, holding him up in front of her. “Ask him any question.”

“Uhhhh….” Rose thought. “What is the meaning of life?”

Puck then promptly burped on cue. Rose laughed heartily.

Later, Rose showed them her own spoils from the rummage sale, which managed to include a good number of silver pieces: a bracelet, a set of variously built goblets from India, and corncob “pokers” (as Rose called them), which she said were sterling silver. There were other winners – the stained glass chicken lamp, the loosely woven wooden chair swing hanging from the pine in the backyard (shaped somewhat like an elongated boxing glove), the ancient clothes iron…

“It works; I already steamed the carpet with it,” Rose said.

She then went on to tell them about how she and Starr had plans to put together a toad wedding with their toad collection.

“We’re going to make a little veil too,” she said.

Then it was off home, whereupon Carrie-Bri was off with Elizabeth, Joe with Tennessee at the movies, OLeif and Rose to pizza and the park with the youth group, and everyone else at small groups while Collette put little Puck to bed back home at a decent hour.