"Busting Ours, Saving Yours"
Thursday, January 13, 2005
The morning began with nothing in particular. In fact, it was normal, but frigid outside, and Collette was obliged to put on another sweater to withstand the cool, even inside the apartment. The sky was a cold sea gray with promise of more storm, as the lightening showers the night before.
Collette thought about those fun old days, when she and Diana were young ladies, more than happy and proud to attend the Mother’s winter tea that one cold January. There had even been a chocolate truffle in shiny wrapping at each place setting and a fancy china tea cup. Of course, they were all to bring their own tea cup, but with all the lovely colors and painted flowers and porcelain, it was a beautiful setting for little girls. And there were soft candles and dainty cakes with little forks. Ah – the carefree days of a younger childhood, she thought to herself. Those were the memories she liked to hold on to.
Meanwhile, OLeif was at the dining room table, fumbling with his newly found pomelo.
“Hmmmm,” he winced a bit as he chewed a bit of the tangy flesh off the first wedge, “if only it were a little more ripe.”
Collette laughed – more than half the pomelo had already come off in the form of a thick green skin, like a great granddaddy orange. Several years ago OLeif had sampled oversized persimmons and papaya. She figured the entire fruit selection at Dierbergs would be sampled within the year – kumquats next, perhaps.
On the way to work, the sign at Knight’s of Columbus had read “Texas Hold ‘Em Tour”, as the temperature slipped into the frigid zone.
Work had been somewhat stressful, unfulfilling, what with all the changes, and unwelcome ones at that. At first, things hadn’t been completely ornery. Ivy watched the flood waters in the creek from the main window with her binoculars and Joe brought donuts as an added plus, since it was his last day. Sniff, sniff, she and Ivy thought to themselves.
Meanwhile, the morning went slowly as Ivy leafed through Wednesday’s mail. She spotted an article in one piece, showing a photograph of the community college’s police academy graduating class, holding a sign with their motto – “Busting ours, saving yours”. They thought this was quite funny.
“Yeah… that’s a little different,” Ivy murmured to herself as the phone rang. “Oh, golly,” she sighed, as another came right after.
Soon the clouds broke forth white fluff and all the world was a snow globe and Ivy sat cradling her mug of hot tea, and Collette befuddled herself over the soon-coming uninviting plans for change in the office. Meanwhile, the old farmer’s crop machinery down by the silos were turning into snow-covered monsters; some seemed like giant bugs with green and red legs, dusted in heaven’s confectionery.
But the week before had been better, despite the sad prayers for tsunami orphans, a five year old with muscular dystrophy, another young boy with brain cancer, the sudden unexplained death of a three year old, and the diagnosis of colon cancer for Ivy’s sister, who had a fourteen year old adopted Japanese son… bleak it seemed for the world that day.
And yet, there were mixed nuts and a fresh fizzing bottle of Coke in the fridge down in the icy basement. Plus, Ivy had a marvelous way of describing things in an organized, detailed, and precise manner, a way in which it all seemed important and dignified. The stories she had – of living in Puerto Rico as a young child, tornadoes in Arkansas, her grandparents watching her and her two sisters and brother in New England and making delicious soups for them while her father was in Asia for the military, of how she and her husband, Mo, swam in a volcano crater in Hawaii for their honeymoon… She even had TMJ, carpel tunnel, tendinitis, and scoliosis, but one would never have guessed by looking at her. Her own mother had krone’s disease and had died when Ivy was in her late twenties. There was always something interesting to tell, and they enjoyed their Thursdays at the office. Collette wondered, however, if that would change now, with everything new coming in to turn the church upside down. It did not seem the best of days.