Before Turkey Day
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Wednesday was another holiday at the office, because everyone would leave early that week and not begin to return until the following Monday. And so, Ivy brought in a spread of crackers and cheese, cashews and almonds, M ‘n Ms, and cheesecake, plus some battered bananas and apples left over from the junior high lock-in the weekend before (none of which had been touched). And she loaded the small fridge with canned sodas.
“Gotta keep Rose happy,” Ivy said.
“Oh, so now it’s Rose… our slave labor,” Sinai noted, helping himself to cheese and crackers.
Over the course of the day, Sinai, Judah, and Jimmy all passed in and out for various reasons, eating most of the food before the bulletin-folding volunteers had their chance – Jamaica Pleschette, her two small daughters, and later Rose, who had swung by for lunch on the way. She also showed off her new silver zipper earrings which were very bright and chatted with Jimmy and Ivy while she finished her roast beef. Rose loved her roast beef.
Later, Rose tried to bribe Judah into running across the road for the mail (which she never liked to do during her volunteer hours) in exchange for sorting Judah’s music packets. In the end, however, Judah made her accompany him across the road and they each carried back half of the mail. Then she sorted old half-forgotten church supply catalogs and put together a flyer on the computer for the carolers from church to pass out with candy canes in Cottleville the following month.
Later in the evening, a good while after the sun had set, OLeif picked up Collette from the office and they hurried over to the Silverspoon’s where Wallace had just arrived (having experienced two or so hours of car trouble, involving running out of gas on the highway, and Joe had to come out and help…). Also present were the rest of the Silverspoons and Relevance and Kitts and Lolli, who were all singing around the piano. And there were tortillas afterwards while Denae got a head start on Thanksgiving dinner.
Kitts was energized that evening, spinning around on the kitchen floor. She and Relevance had been up since two or so that morning, had been picked up at the airport by Mercy, Kitts took a long walk in the neighborhood with Mercy, and spent the afternoon re-decorating Aram Breena with Carrie.
“It’s very colorful now,” Kitts explained their decorating.
Seeing as most of them didn’t know what Aram Breena was, Kitts explained, “It’s the Fourth Reich of Aram Breena. Our tree house.”
“They offered me initiation,” Relevance said skeptically.
Collette could presume that he had not accepted the invitation. Nor could she quite imagine Relevance sitting in the trees surrounded by bright ribbons, beads, and wind chimes, and repeating whatever initiation chants and/or poems and rituals that might possibly be required to become a member.
Before leaving that evening, OLeif played some music with the boys in the attempt to prepare music for the prelude at church the following morning. But nothing seemed to take, and so the endeavor was laid to rest.