Day 3

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
In which Collette completes her final day of aiding the class of rather compliant four year-olds…

Puck started things out with a bouncy ball tossed down the hallway.
He explained, “I gave it to the spiders to play wiff.”
[Still working on those th’s…]
And during breakfast eggs, he caught the hiccups again.
“Drink some water,” Collette instructed. “That will help.”
“Mama, I don’t want to. Because I like the hiccups.”

Back to church.
Penny wars.
The kids had already raised enough money to contribute four months’ worth of milk to the Preschool in Alexandria.
Trail mix; the kids selected their own additions, including goldfish crackers and M’nMs.
Francis continued to work the sound with Creole and Gaston.
And Linnea helped monitor the five and six year-olds.
The morning ended with a pinata to celebrate the two birthdays that week. Puck snagged a Tootsie pop.

On the way home, Puck was commenting on life…
“I didn’t get to give you much hugs today, Mama, or to read my big book with you.”
“What are mouths for?”
“What are feet for?”
“What are trees for?”
And that cliché one, Collette wasn’t sure she had ever heard him ask…
“What is the sky blue for?”
“To be beautiful,” Collette told him.
“I have to think with my cute cheeks,” was Puck’s response.

A letter arrived in the mail that afternoon in the patchwork of sunlight and shadows, those great sailing clouds in the robin blue… from a firm in Mobile, Alabama, offering OLeif the opportunity to sue his former employer.

Puck was dumped in the tub for a scrub-up.
Pork steaks in the oven.
And perusal of writing jobs.
Continued news of Mr. Rogers leaving his practice.
Redwall.
Sermons.
Puck’s Bible, found in ‘Henri’s house’ at church.
Life was, on occasion, best described in bullet points.

OLeif was at his guys’ Bible study in South City, celebrating one of his buddies’ birthdays, as the sky filled with those beautiful sheets of blue steel.

And apparently the four gas leaks at the Combs’ residence had turned into six.