By a Breath

It had been the most dramatic Olympics women’s gymnastics, perhaps of all time. Americans Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson had gone one, two, in the all-around, bringing glory once again to the United States of America. Collette couldn’t leave the television set until one o’clock in the morning. So far the best day of the games. And Michael Phelps was six for six. Six golds.
Six world records. Ridiculous.
Friday morning, (almost like in the old days), Collette, Rose, and Puck joined Mom, Francis, Linnea, the Pies, Englishs, and several others at the park for a short time that morning. Puck crawled around the apparatus, his chubby cheeks shining like two red apples as he ran around from place to place. He had recently added two words to his vocabulary, which he used on a daily basis: shoes and spoon.
After the park, Collette, Rose, and Puck hit the grocery store, which included a four-cheese pizza and lemon ice pops for lunch, since no one else would be around.
Eleda was coming to spend the night with Cherry and Linnea after she visited Tor in the hospital. Linnea had a gift for Cherry, which she had bought at Costco earlier that summer – a sort of going-away present – a thick spiral-bound notebook with Junior Mints written across the front. Cherry would be leaving in less than three weeks as her family prepared to move everything to Iowa. They were in their last days of adding as much summer fun as possible to their time together.
That evening, Mollie dropped in with a sack of groceries to fix a gourmet meal of pasta garnished with baby tomatoes, olives, fresh basil, and Feta cheese, salad, and fresh bread for OLeif and Collette. This included strawberry-rhubarb pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Collette was pleased with the break, and, naturally, continued watching the never-ending Olympic coverage. Michael Phelps had taken his seventh gold medal in literally the must stunning race of all time, tied with Mark Spitz, officially, for the most gold medals in a game. Though not receiving a world record for it, he still broke an Olympic record, and a personal best. Would wonders never cease?
And Bing had turned 22. Where had childhood gone?