Cruising down the Nile... Fifth Day: The Torah
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Collette woke up at 7:30 that gray morning. It was 3:30 in the afternoon in Egypt, which meant that only hours before, Carrie and Rose had hopped a small plane south to Luxor, the former capitol of the New Kingdom. Following lunch on the cruise boat, in private moorings, they were to take a horse and carriage ride to Luxor Temple, the temple complex of Karnak with its vast hall. Another full day for the girls abroad.
And a call over to the house that morning proved that Mom was feeling back to normal, and probably never did have the flu. This also ruled out the possibility that the girls had caught another bug before leaving the country.
Saturday was spent in thinking about the possibility of buying the house – early in the afternoon Mom also met OLeif and Collette at the site to look around the rooms. Mom was, as always, very pleased with what she saw. And Joe was already making plans to get OLeif a bike to get to work every morning.
In sidelights, OLeif had finally gotten through the box of oranges, after spreading a few around here and there to other folks. Collette had actually swallowed one down for the first time in her life (not counting mandarin oranges) and found that, while rather tasteless, they did go down the throat easier than she had anticipated.
There was also the box of fudge which Aunt Petunia had made specifically for them at Christmas. OLeif had taken much of it with him to his lunches. But there was still an extraordinary amount left for such a rather small box, really, even though it was too tempting to resist. Aunt Petunia had also wrapped up a package of Reeses peanut butter cups for “Boogie Boy” (the Javanese idol still on top of the bookshelf, carrying a glass candy dish in his lap). But the peanut butter cups never actually saw the inside of the bowl. Collette mostly finished them off that very day, with some help from OLeif.
Meanwhile, evening came quickly and it was off to the coffeehouse where the boys were playing. This was after OLeif and Collette had quiche, peppermint ice cream, and cream puffs (or “puff balls”, as Kitts put it) over at the Silverspoon’s. OLeif was also faxed the contract to the house to Theodore’s office. And apparently, all of the Christmas gifts the Silverspoons had given Relevance and Kitts (except for a pair of funky socks for Kitts), they had already just purchased or received as gifts – odd coincidence.
Relevance and Kitts were in town since late Wednesday night and were also coming for coffee. Joseph was likely up serving the coffee again. And Diana was to meet OLeif and Collette there, as she had just returned for the holiday weekend.
The coffeehouse was full, as usual. Present were: the Souths, Tennessee, Joe, Jo-Jo and Molly, Magnus’ parents, the Milks, Stacie Tops, the Buckles, (Diana couldn’t make it after all for some reason)… and Joseph and Mercy were serving the drinks that night.
In other news, Collette received a letter in the mail that evening, summoning her to jury duty on the day after Dad’s birthday – February 6th. Somehow she felt too young to serve on a jury, despite the fact that she would be about seven months along by the time that date arrived. She wondered if there was some way she could excuse herself from it, before reading in bold type at the top of the letter:
“IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR AS DIRECTED BY THIS SUMMONS YOU MAY BE HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT AND FINED…”
She figured that unless baby arrived two months premature, she had no good reason for trying to pass on her duty as citizen of the United States.
And Saddam Hussein had been executed. And the rain fell.