Coconut Milk & Peanut Butter
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Puck was twelve weeks old already. He was really becoming a little person.
In various parts of the neighborhood, Linnea was swimming at a friend’s luau party, Francis was water-tubing in the Ozarks with the junior youth, Joe was surfing in Hawaii, and Carrie was snow skiing in New Zealand. She would also be in Queenstown for the next two nights.
Meanwhile, Rose was at home. And Mom, Collette, and Puck were out for the day. Before they left for their errands, however, Eve and Othniel dropped by the house with Carrie’s memory card full of 350 pictures and twenty-something videos. Eve proceeded to share some highlights and funny stories of their fabulous trip.
“Once, we found this coconut on the beach that was already a little bit open. So Carrie opened it all the way and we drank the coconut milk and put some in our hair.” Eve laughed. “And then, Carrie was like, ‘Eve! Do you think we’ll get worms?!’ We were really worried for awhile. But I think we’re OK.”
They had also visited a carnival in Sydney.
“And on the Fourth of July we decided to be patriotic. So, Carrie drew a big American flag in the sand on the beach and we said the Pledge of Allegiance on the videotape.”
They got a little sick of eating peanut butter. Carrie had eaten an entire jar in one day while they were in the Daintree Rainforest.
“And we really liked the raisin toast over there. It’s not as sweet as the kind we have over here. So Carrie is going to try to experiment making raisin toast when she gets back.”
“Well, I bet you’re glad to have her back, Othniel,” Mom had said.
“Yes, it’s about time,” he said adamantly.
There were other tales. All would be told over the following weeks.
For the rest of the day, they were off on the road.
The first stop was at Grandma Snickett’s. She had four caramel popcorn balls for the kids, which they picked up. But first, she brought them by her friend’s door – Dorothy – so that she could see Puck. Dorothy was inside preparing a cup of tea before she came out into the little lobby to work at the puzzle table.
“Oh, aren’t you just the most precious thing!” She tickled Puck’s feet, and he smiled at her. “Well, you just made my day. He looks like a Puck. Like he’s ready to take charge. Ready, men! Forward!”
The next stop included a drop by Pier 1. Collette hadn’t visited the shop in three years. It always reminded her and Mom of the days before OLeif’s and Collette’s wedding. They had spent many afternoons there looking over things for their apartment.
And because OLeif liked big water glasses, Collette bought one that she thought he might enjoy – a mouth-blown glass of orange with faint red stripes.
After a few other errands, the afternoon came to a close. They returned to the house just as Rose was preparing to leave for work.
Back home, OLeif prepared fish tacos while telling Collette about how Joe had called him the night before on his cell phone at 10:30.
“It pretty much went like this:
‘OLeif..shhhhhhhh…it’s just…shhhhhhhh…beautiful…shhhhhhhh…here. You’re kind of…shhhhhhhh…breaking…shhhhhhhh…up.’
“And I keep saying, ‘Call me back, call me back, call me back.’”
Then Joe realized that Hawaii was five hours behind St. Louis. He called the house Wednesday evening, however, and told Rose more about how much he loved it over there.
Oddly, Joe was five hours behind, while Carrie was seventeen hours ahead.