Chapter Seventy-Eight
“Happy Mother’s Day!”
A sweet voice and jammed fellow entered my room carrying a tray stocked with breakfast. My little honey wasn’t kidding. Buttered toast, boiled egg, and yogurt. With a glass of cold water. Sometimes he just splits the old heart strings. He followed that up with a few rousing, and ear-busting verses of…
“SHOO, FLY! DON’T BOTHER ME! SHOO, FLY! DON’T BOTHER ME! SHOO, FLY! DON’T BOTHER ME! FOR I BELONG TO SOME-BO-DY!!”
And a tacked-on chorus of…
“I FEEL, I FEEL, I FEEL! I FEEL LIKE A MORNING STAR!”
Still, I was sort of irritable on the ride into sunrise. The Bear was talking a lot about church, and I really didn’t want to talk about it. It’s sort of a sour pit right now. Fourteen years… Misdirected focus… Ug… I didn’t say much.
A lot of traffic, sparse parking lot.
“It’s been kind of empty lately,” The Bear explained, steering the blue beast to the back corner of the lot.
“Is the company tanking?” I asked casually.
I think by now I’m known for calmly anticipating disaster.
“No,” he replied, used to my assumed emergency. “I think they’re just afraid of that goose.”
Puck and I had plans for…
THE ST. LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER
We ran for the door, moccasin fringe flying. Harsh crush of cold wind under warm sun. Only to realize that the door wasn’t opening. 9:30. Of course. We tore back to the car for twenty minutes of Adventures in Odyssey.
I guess I had underestimated the concept of Spring Break. Ten minutes before opening, crowds were already gathered outside the glass doors, waiting admission. It was a crowded morning. But all the better for Puck. What is there not to love about more people, more potential friends? He would say.
“Mind eating in the car with us today?” I texted The Bear shortly after eleven.
“Ok. Is there a particular reason why?”
“I’m too embarrassed to eat out of a peanut butter jar in public.”
Clearly I hadn’t thought the whole thing through. I had, at least, made sandwiches for the boys. Top it off with selections from the vending machine. By the time we drove back to the Science Center and miraculously found an empty spot at the Planetarium parking lot, my three Reeses cups were at the perfect silky-clay temperature for consuming.
Creepy Chemistry presentations, Puck offering assistance to and schooling of the other children in the art of nano technology computer games [he likes administration], Hamlet walked through with his small family. St. Louis is a small big city. A few more hours passed quickly. We wrapped up our visit with a trip to the gift shop. A first for Puck. After examining the astronaut ice cream in various flavors, grow-your-crystals, volcano kits, piles of shiny green, blue, and red rocks, Puck finally settled on a blue plastic “magnetic wand” for $2.99. The kind granny who checked us out was proud of Puck for handling the dollar bills on his own.
“You know with that magnetic stick you can pick up paper clips and other little things at home.”
Puck grinned.
“Have fun with that now,” she told him.
“I WILL!” he called back to her as we walked off.
About half an hour at the park in Clayton was all we could handle with the cold. Puck walked around testing all flat surfaces with his magnetic wand, telling all the other kids about it as he ran around. I got in another chapter of “Radical” on the park bench, which was even colder. We sought shelter in the car with more chicken nuggets [these super-sized packages of food…] and cuties. Orange zest shot is soft geysers through the air.
I was kind of irritated with people for not paying attention today. Like the mom who let her toddler mess with the computers in the closed Lego Mindstorm exhibit and scribble pencil over a pad of evaluation forms. Not even a drop of guilt. The woman in the white mini van slapped with pink and white zebra license plate frame swerving in and out of lanes while plucking hair from her hairbrush. Arg.
Oh, and The Bear got me that cake pop last night, by the way. Two of them, actually. One was entitled “Birthday Cake”, I think, swathed in pink with little white balls on top. And another one chocolate, dowsed in chocolate, vanilla, and caramel. As pretentious as they seem, and probably having something to do with Pinterest – I hate that word by the way; or rather, “strongly dislike” – they’re good anyway.
