Catalina

Puck began his morning by reading his ‘lost coin book’ in his crib.
“Spit it out, shark!” he commanded. “Let it go, shark. Go away, shark. Goodbye, coin. I see you ‘morrow. He will get scratched. He will get scratched, Mama. I put him away so he won’t get scratched.”
This was followed with a long yawn.

Over at the house, while Puck watched the toaster in anticipation for his waffle, Joe entertained him by juggling hard-boiled eggs.

Before 11:30, Collette was at Ivy’s house to join her for lunch and putting together corsages for Mercy’s wedding, which was to take place in two months.
After looking at the boxes of dark pink silk roses in the basement for the wedding, they shipped off to Chevy’s for overstuffed burritos and enchiladas. And then to Old Saint Charles to a European shop to pick out more silk flowers for the corsages. After that, they visited the spice shop for ground rosemary and a brown sugar bear for Nicodemus’ Christmas stocking. After a stop by Costco for a heated blanket for the kitties, spinach for Nicodemus, bananas and broccoli for Ivy’s nephew’s lunchbox, and peanut butter for Ivy’s Christmas cookies, it was after four o’clock.

After Mom and Linnea had returned from Linnea’s gymnastics and visiting Flash in his new home, Mom relayed the story of the attack of the wild turkeys which chased their van out of the neighborhood.

By 6:30, Mom, OLeif, Collette, and Carrie-Bri left for the airport while Rose hung out with a bag of white Christmas M ‘n Ms and the snoozing Puck.
It was time, after two years on the mission field in Sudan, for Catalina to return to St. Louis. So they greeted her at the airport shortly after 7:30. She looked just as she always did, but with the addition of the colors from the culture she had lived with for those many months: long beaded bracelets, like wrist guards, on both arms, a beaded belt over a white shirt, and a brightly colored striped scarf from Kenya.
They then picked up Relevance and Kitts, whose plane landed half an hour after Catalina’s. And at Massa’s for pizza and salad afterward, a sort of hole in the wall Italian restaurant, with many of the old philosophy and Liberty people, they heard about Catalina’s next plans, hopefully including work in Glasgow and learning Arabic (perhaps at a year-long program in Jordan), in preparation for her return to Africa… It was great to see her again and wait to see what she would do next in her life.