douner confort.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Collette had been two, almost three, when Uncle Clarence and Aunt Galena had been married. And although she regretted not remembering the actual ceremony, she did remember the reception a little.
It had been a darker room for the reception – perhaps there were low-lit chandeliers (she could see that in pictures). She had remembered seeing Dad sitting at the head table with a champagne glass like the rest of the wedding party. But his must have contained sparkling grape juice, because she remembered hearing Mom say that Dad had decided not to drink the champagne. She vaguely remembered Uncle Clarence and Aunt Galena on the dance floor. And afterwards, as they made their get-away, it had been raining heavily earlier in the day. And the confetti that was being thrown at them in handfuls was falling to the wet ground. Collette had been intrigued with the little pastel circles of paper and began to rescue them in her hands from the wet pavement. She would have started a collection if she had been old enough to protest their being thrown away, which they must have been shortly later.
Meanwhile, Saturday night’s hayride had gone off well with all the younger kids managing to throw enough hay at each other to stuff a scarecrow. OLeif walked further back down the field to the lone tree with Addicus, where Addicus had seen muskrats swimming in a mud hole. OLeif also witnessed a shooting star. There was a bonfire, hot dogs, chips, s’mores, and all the other fixings of a bonfire.
At church, Sunday School was as usual, with the littlest troublemaker of the class giving “pizza pie” as the answer to every question during the lesson.
And during the service, Joe and Frances looked like the usual twins that they did, both of them hunched over staring at the pastor, chins resting on fists. Molly rested her head on her mom’s shoulder, the hood of her red knitted sweater hanging down behind her. And Samantha Bee and her best chum whispered about who-knew-what and pointed at wallet pictures of various people during the sermon.
Idlewild also had exciting news for Collette before the service began. She was expecting too and was due in June. Suddenly Collette felt better knowing she wasn’t the only young one turning mother in the next year.
Sunday afternoon, Mom and Denae were off to a surprise 50th birthday party for Mrs. West at some undisclosed location. There were sure to be silly games, like guess-how-many-m-n-ms-are-in-the-mason-jar.
And so OLeif, Collette, Rose, and Linnea played mah-jongg on the coffee table and talked about Rose’s upcoming trip to Egypt in early January for school. Collette also tried to convince Rose to take French at the college, seeing as it was rather difficult persuading her to remember to do her Italian homework. Rose would have none of it.
They had all been pretty surprised when Dad had given Rose permission to actually go to Egypt. Granted, she wouldn’t be going alone; she would be with a tour group. But still, it was very un-Dad-like. And very generous. Collette knew it would be a trip of a lifetime for Rose – everything from riding camels to the great pyramids to cruising down the Nile and visiting the Valley of the Kings. Even the overnight layover in Frankfurt on the way home… it was perfect.
The rest of Sunday evening was spent with the youth where Joe, Ben-Hur, Susie, Alex, Rose, Molly, and Sunrise gathered over a Loraine-made Italianish chicken, rice, and tomato casserole and beer bread to hear one of Jimmy’s friends speak about art. The conversation went on for nearly two hours, with thoughts on morality, creativity, standards, etc.
When they got home that night, OLeif rearranged the furniture in the apartment.