Day Before

Friday, May 25, 2007

The day began with rain.

Puck was having a rough time of it that morning. Maybe it was growing pains. He often wore a look of great concentration and concern. And he rarely ceased to wiggle. But he had looked Colette right in the eye and smiled at her. Life was good for baby Octavian, even when he thought that his present circumstances merited a good hard cry.

Meanwhile, it was Joe’s and Wally’s last official day to live as high school seniors before the big graduation ceremony. Magnus would not be participating in the festivities. And Ben-Hur would be graduating with his own class.

Collette had personally found it challenging to enjoy the day before her own graduation. She had been working at the bank at the time and found her drawer short by a rather significant amount the Thursday evening before leaving for the day.

“Oh well, don’t worry about it,” the head teller had told her. “Go enjoy your graduation.”

The bank had given Collette the entire Friday off for her rehearsal and ceremony, which was a very rare occurrence. She had not been given off a single Saturday during her five-month stay. So it was even more of a special thing that she had been given off that Friday, even though she had to report at work by 8:30 again the following morning. Spring semester of her senior year had just been rough. In the end, it had toughened her, opened her eyes to the way people really were out in the world. Disappointing.

However, Joe’s and Wally’s prospects seemed much lighter.

There was also the suggestion of Shakespeare on the Green again for the seventh year in a row after the ceremony. This year it was to be “Much Ado About Nothing”.

And Puck hiccuped through the day like a squeaky toy.