Defense
Sunny and cool. Puck was ready for the sunbeams in his sweet shades. For the first time, he was enjoying the experience of sunglasses. He didn’t even paw them off his face when entering the Silverspoon’s. Instead, he grinned chubby dimples at his Nana.
So while the little nipper spent the afternoon at Nana’s and Papa’s, OLeif and Collette ran around town, first to Linnea’s basketball game, then to church.
The game was pretty much a disaster.
“We keep trying,” said Mr. English. “We keep trying.”
“Defense, Linnea, defense,” Carrie told her.
“Yeah, it’s okay to be aggressive out there,” Collette said.
“But my finger got jammed yesterday, so I was afraid to block anything.”
“Linnea, pain is weakness leaving the body!” Collette said.
Dad chuckled from the front seat of the car.
Meanwhile, Frances had plans.
“OLeif,” he said. “I was thinking of a new gun. A cane gun. So then all the old people will be safe.”
Over at the church, where OLeif had already been practicing, he and Judah were shoveling the walks. And despite Mercy missing from the practice, the other four played their ditty (with Carrie doing double-duty on tambourine and filling in for Susie). After a few laughs on the dance floor, Mom decided that they were ready enough for the big exposition the following evening.
OLeif and Collette swung by Target before picking up the Puckling.
“I’m STARVING!” OLeif told Collette, wide-eyed.
He wasted little time picking up a bag of chip-crackers, Colby-Jack cheese, Pepperidge Farm cookies, and a blueberry pomegranate Italian soda.
“Just give me stacks of cheese and stacks of crackers,” he instructed Collette as they peeled out of the parking lot.
Frances’ game wrapped up the day. OLeif actually giggled throughout the game at Collette’s and Carrie’s reactions, which were most often:
“Ooooh! Aaaah! Yeah!”
Collette also found herself calling a few times:
“Stop it!”
And after the team took a loss on the scoreboard, OLeif, Collette, and Puck split for home while the rest of the family (minus Rose and Joe who were at work and elsewhere) headed off for Cracker Barrel.