Ch. 209; Vol. 10

Puck was sitting out at the counter, in his jams, waiting on a breakfast burrito and farm bacon from Gloria’s All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast Diner. I can’t blame him for preferring Sunday mornings at Nana’s, over cold strawberry yogurt and banana back home.

Walked through the church doors about thirty seconds early.

Trousered Puck, listening to the sermon on Ruth. M&M raised his voice from the pulpit…

“And we need to stand up for these kids!”

Puck stood up.

“Puck…”

He whispered urgently at me…

“He said to stand up, Mom!”

September-in-July. Late September… It might as well have been. Puck tossed me that newly coveted red frisbee back and forth in the parking lot near a bean pod tree waiting for The Bear, in a coolness that was not appropriate – or right – for July.

Rose walked in first. She had left her shampoo and conditioner at The Big House, so she walked off to wash her hair. Then laughed at the insults in the Shakespearean gum pack. Francis came next…

“What smells good?”

“Not you,” Carrie retorted.

Even Joe and Jaya joined the lunch consortium.

Provel cheese puffs. Chicken and pasta soup. Puck cleaned up fast and marched outside for a little hunt-around…

“LOOK WHAT I FOUND! YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED!”

He pulled a large plastic bottle of something from behind his back…

“Mr… Beer?…”

“Where did you find this, Puck?”

“Outside Lila’s window! On the ground!”

“What?…”

“I told you I heard someone sneaking around outside my window.”

Puck carried it from person to person wrapped in a towel…

“So there won’t be fingerprints on it,” he said. “Lila, did you put that there?… Sun?… Francis?… I won’t even ask Grandma Snicketts, because she can’t roll down the steps.”

“Give it to me,” said Dad. “I’ll dump it out.”

“Let’s blow it up!”

“YEAH!”

“Grandpa, but I need to look for clues.”

“Come on, let’s explode it!”

“I’m going to dump it.”

“No, no, no!”

“D-D-Dad!”

“No, wait!”

“WAIT!”

“I’ll get a sparkler bomb!”

“I told the neighbor kids you’re going to blow it up,” Francis said importantly. “So they can watch you blow it up!”

With about three iPhones rolling, the bottle was strapped to the sparklers and lit…

BOOM!

The sparklers exploded.

The bottle didn’t.

Cousins stopped by – Gus and the almost-five-year-old twins in pink skirts chasing each other around the small wilderness.

Ice cream at church.

You know. Things just sort of keep happening…