Basketball, Honeysuckle, & Crocodile Pie - The Big Bad Dad Returns!
Saturday, February 4, 2006
[9:38am] Collette awoke that morning feeling as though her tooth had never bothered her. The remains of clovish dressing still hung in the air, but it was a very small price to pay for the relief of the pain.
Friday evening, while OLeif wrapped up discussion with the youth, Mom hung little red glass hearts in the dining room and kitchen while Collette, Frances, and Linnea made valentines. There were little foam hearts in three sizes in light pink, darker pink, white, and dark red, red ribbon, construction paper of various colors, and dark red heart paper doilies. Collette made two for the kitchen windows and Linnea and Frances made “Welcome Home Dad” signs for the following evening. Linnea made a valentine for Dulcinea and one for Chester while Frances made one for his friend, Cherry Pie, from church and choir. He carefully wrote in cursive on the back:
“To Cherry, From Frances. Happy Valentines Day! XoXo”
“Oh, Frances, I see some xo’s on there,” Mom said slyly as she taped paper hearts on the plate shelf.
“Oh,” Frances turned a little red, “you weren’t supposed to see that.”
Collette helped him carefully poke two holes into the paper heart and thread a red ribbon through both holes. Then Frances tied a lovely little bow with the two ends.
“Oh!” Linnea gasped when she saw the bow being tied. “I’m going to copy you, Frances, OK?”
And she outlined her paper heart in medium sized dark pink foam hearts, as Frances had outlined his in small red foam hearts. Then Collette helped her thread her own ribbon through the holes and tied it into a bow. This valentine would be given to Chester.
Outside, after OLeif picked her up, Collette found Joe, Shakespeare, Rose, and Molly discussing the stars and satellites, deciding which were which. The berth of the heavens – quite splendid. Sometimes, Collette could even see red in the stars, or blue. A beautiful sight. It reminded her of a dream she had had earlier in the week of herself, Denae, and Curly being in the Outback amongst the dark hills and a lake of complete quiet beneath a night sky of stars so bright, it was as though the heavens were filled with candles.
“Hey, you’re right!” Magnus exclaimed, excitedly. “It’s twinkling at me!”
They spent the rest of the night at Steak ‘n Shake and discussions, as usual.
[13:01pm] For OLeif and Collette, Saturday morning was spent for an hour or so at Izzy’s basketball game. And Frances was dropped off as well on the way back from swimming lessons with Mom and Linnea. Denae sat with them in the upper row of the gym bleachers and chatted. The game was good – Izzy himself made three baskets (six points) and in the last five seconds, his team won the game by one point. Quite a show. It was their first win of the season, and the boys were very excited. They munched on goodies afterwards while their coaches handed out colored stars for good effort, to tack on to their uniform sleeves.
Shortly later back at the house, Dad called from Los Angeles, having safely arrived in the United States. And Carrie-Bri was waiting for a phone call from Paige Popp to see if there were shopping plans for the evening for them, along with Elizabeth and Crystabelle.
[9:25pm] It was great to have Dad back again. They arrived at the airport just as Dad called Mom’s cell phone to let them know that he and Mr. Freeze had landed. And inside, just around the bend, there he was. Mom was already hurrying ahead, and Frances and Linnea ran up with their welcome home signs opened for him. And the rest of the evening, over chili and biscuits, they looked at pictures and heard stories of everything. Dad would run in the mornings near his hotel by stretches of honey suckle and lavender beneath his eleventh floor of the hotel. He loved the sailboat trip and even sampled prawn on the voyage, along with alligator pie during the conferences. The business aspect of the trip had also seemed to be successful – an all-around enjoyable trip.
There were also pictures from Apple’s wedding, where she carried white orchids and had a lovely ceremony. The Moss family had sent them a picture book of Australia and a little koala magnet made with googly eyes and real sheepskin, and the same thing to the English family. There were coins for everyone from Dad and a special chocolate bar made of milk, white, and dark chocolate. The Big Bad Dad had successfully returned from his mission “Down Unda.”