Drought & Crickets

Thursday, May 24, 2007

It was Strawberry’s and Iwo’s third anniversary. The day seemed to be somewhat similar in the matter of heat as it had been on their Renaissance wedding day under a hot sun, no shade, and no breeze. Only the wedding party had been shaded under the circus-colored pavilion. One of Strawberry’s bridesmaids had nearly fainted afterward during the first dance. Her long red silk dress probably hadn’t done her any favors in keeping things cool.

During the morning hours, Carrie-Bri waited to hear from Elazar, Down Under, about the drought conditions in Australia. According to the news reports, the entire country was under water restrictions and suffering from the first horrific drought to ever hit a first world country.

When Elazar responded, however, he assured her that the media had over-exaggerated the lack of water, and that their trip was still good to go.

Carrie also began preparations for selecting plane tickets to South America come fall. Turkey would wait for a later date.

During Rose’s school session that morning, she wrote a profile about “the gypsies who live in the red barn” – a subject matter of her choice in preparation for an English Composition exam. And in between paper corrections, she tried her best to convince Dad and Mom at intervals that she was ready to test for her driver’s license that Friday. The coaxing apparently wasn’t successful for the time being.

“This is the saddest batch of crickets I’ve ever had,” Collette overheard Rose later, feeding her woeful toads.

Indeed, part of the cricket bag had been filled with cricket legs and legless crickets upon their arrival the previous afternoon. But Rose still tried to fatten them up on squishy red cubes of food – who knew what was in them – so that her toads might continue living comfortably.

Meanwhile, Joe had returned from The Green Lantern to work with Curly on his car in the garage. Small red strip lights were added above the doors and various car parts lay around the garage floor as Collette and Puck returned home for the day.

Later that evening it was off to the Baptist church for the 2007 graduation dress rehearsal, which OLeif would be narrating for the fourth year in a row.

And “the group” as they had become known, was headed over to the cinema for an early viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean III.