Eighteen
“Grab your backpack, Puck.”
We had just pulled into school at about 8:15 that morning, somehow managing to avoid another traffic explosion. Puck was in good spirits as usual, until…
“Uh oh.”
“You left it at home. Didn’t you.”
“Yup.”
So Yali and I made the roundtrip back home to grab the scuffed up Big Hero 6 backpack stocked with homework, lunch box, and thermos. About an hour later, Mom escorted the backpack up to school where she had lunch duty for the morning. Then I made a quick phone call to see if I could bump Yali’s next appointment up a few hours.
“There’s an eleven o’clock opening.”
“It’s about 10:35. I’m coming from Weldon Spring. We’d be a little late…”
“It’s okay. Drive safe, drive careful. We’ll wait for you.”
I love Cardinal Glennon.
When we walked into the waiting room, Yali pointed to his wrist for the hospital tag bracelet. He remembered.
Less than an hour later after a final ear cleaning, we had crossed off our final pre-surgery prep appointment.
Puck walked up to me in the hallway at school. “Today was a hard day, Mom.”
Over five weeks later, and we hit the first one. Not bad, not bad.
What helped make up for it was seeing Uncle Clause and Aunt Agnes visiting from Texas. We had some time to drop by the Silverspoon’s where Gloria was mixing guacamole and slicing fresh vegetables. It didn’t take long for Yali to find fascination with the top of Uncle Clause’s head, patting it, then patting his own black mohawk. Aunt Agnes shared some activity books from Minnesota and Missouri with Puck. And then Snickers the cat had to be rescued from Yali squeezing her again. This kid and cats… Eventually Oxbear joined the party for some dinner before Izzy’s French pastry chef girlfriend dropped in after Yali and I had left for the evening. Izzy was on tour with Curly and Lulu and the Gettys until Christmas, so he was unable to make an appearance.
All that to say, I think Puck’s evening made up for the rest of his day.
CARDINALS:
St. Louis: 3-1 win against Reds, John Lackey pitching.
4 games up on Pittsburgh: 95 and 56; 11 games remaining.
Magic Number: 8.