Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Saturday, July 16, 2005

It was a day for organization, and Collette came over to the house prepared to rehaul the basement. Truly, hadn’t they been hearing for years from Mom:

“I’ll never go down into that basement again. It’s a pig pen down there.”

Even when their cousins, Brit and Jashub, had lived with them for the summer while working for Dad on computer projects, Mom hardly ever set foot in the basement. And that was right after it was completed, carpeted, tiled, and painted all fresh. Those were the good old days – probably the best summer they ever had. After all, weren’t their cousins just the coolest things to ever hit the planet?

But the point being – Mom had had enough with the basement. It was a “trash heap” in Mom’s opinion. And it had been cleaned over several times. The previous summer, Carrie-Bri and Rose had revamped the whole thing and even added various homey touches like lace, plants, and throw pillows for Mom’s benefit. However, somehow they had been lost in the plays, race tracks, and movies that had ensued since.

And in other news, Lance Armstrong was still leading in the Tour de France, which of course, was an item of high importance to Joe in particular.

Meanwhile, Friday ended with Rose’s last day of 5-day clubs in a barn built in 1911 and overrun with barn kittens. And Collette’s day ended at the church office after finding someone had marked Rush Limbaugh down for attendance, as well as the Muffin Man, address – Drury Lane.

And so it was now Saturday, and Mom was gone for the weekend with Grandma. Meanwhile, Dad took Francis and Linnea on the Katy Trail for the morning and OLeif and Joe went car-hunting with Theodore.

Collette began to organize the basement, taking a break after three and a half hours of sorting through dusty memories while Rose attempted to help but was distracted by watching “Gladiator”.

Carrie made plans for her and Elizabeth to meet Paige Popp at Liberty after work, hoping that the crew still went out to El Maguey for Mexican food following the church service at 9:00 or so. Afterward, they might possibly meet up with her red-headed Israel around midnight, picking him up from the airport, as he was granted a surprise two-week leave before being shipped off to Afghanistan. No doubt, Paige would be presented a large sparkling ring during that time.

And Carrie had also just purchased a 100-pound punching bag. Then she prepared shish kabobs for lunch and Dad returned to take Rose to the pet shop to purchase clippers for Troops after she watched a documentary on the Bermuda Triangle.

OLeif and Joe soon returned after putting down a deposit on a ’97 Toyota Camry. And that evening there would be live music from Wally and Curly at the coffee house down by Jungerman. It seemed to be quite the eventful day.

Meanwhile, over Cecil Whittaker’s for dinner, Rose managed to throw a piece of pizza at Francis from across the kitchen. And OLeif somehow splashed a cup of water behind his back over the dining room window. And Dad was shooting Francis and Linnea with Francis’ heavy-duty plastic machine gun from the kitchen table. Joe managed to refrain from participating in the circus.

At the coffee house that night, Joe and OLeif ordered their coffees and mochas. And Rose and Collette took a soda from the small fridge, apiece, even though it was already quite cool. They proceeded to warm their hands over the mosaic tea light cups.

“Let’s go walk to Walgreens and buy a stuffed animal, and throw it around.” Rose suggested, shivering from the cool of the fan.

“OK, I think not.” Collette laughed.

“Well, I’m going outside,” Rose said bluntly. “It’s too cold in here.”

So they went out for awhile in the warm breezes of the evening on the patio where shone German Cinderella-type lanterns from the gates. And street café tables and chairs sat clustered on the red bricks laid back from the street. The evening was most pleasant and the blue of the sky was a hazy rose color to the west. Just behind lay the remnant of an old farmland of green hills. Only the very last bit of it.

Soon, inside, a crowd was gathered about the tables, ordering scones and cakes and mochas, cookies and teas and coffees and whatever else held their fancy. Around 8:30, Wally and Curly pulled out the guitar and violin, and later a mandolin and they played the night away while Joe and Magus and some Scout boys and everyone else chatted. And so the stars came out to the tunes of the old Irish and American folk songs.