Eighty City Blocks
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
OLeif was in the shower as Collette went about putting stamps to letters – one to St. Peters and another to Ukraine. The sky was a lovely sea gray and the bean pods barely trembled on the chiseled brown branches.
The afternoon before, once again, had been very peaceful, rainy, and quiet. There were several games of Clue after a relatively simply geometry session with Joe and Rose. There were “Waltons” to be watched later with Mom and Rose while Joe cleaned his bike chain in the living room and OLeif had just arrived from work to polish off two heaping plates of pork, heart of palm salad, creamed corn, and many thick slices of buttered brown bread.
Earlier, Joe pieced together his armada of Styrofoam airplanes while Francis did the same with his Lego mini-planes, and Linnea colored her cardboard castle in the living room. Carrie-Bri, of course, was still in New York, and Dad was loading his CD collection into his hard-drive. It was a quiet, calming day.
Collette had also heard from Diana earlier in the morning, before she left for a lunch appointment.
“I am soooooo sorry for not calling you New Year’s Eve, Collette,” she apologized. “I totally forgot. I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry.”
Collette laughed, “Hey, don’t worry about it. I figured you had to catch up with some other friends before you left anyway. So I’m glad you got to see Joan before she left to go back to Kentucky.”
“Yeah, I really did need to see her,” Diana admitted. “But I didn’t even remember to call you until I was at Columns for another job, and then I was like, ‘Oh no!’ Gosh, I just hate money, always having to find more work to do. That settles it – I’m just going to have to marry a rich man. That’s all there is to it. I’ll find myself an engineer, a non-nerdy engineer.”
Later, Carrie-Bri called from New York and spoke briefly with Collette, as she and Elizabeth were watching Oprah. Carrie-Bri told her about seeing the Statue of Liberty, but once again, not being able to go up inside because of the long lines. New Year’s Eve they had got as far as 46th Street, after crossing eight check points. And while the experience had been quite fun, Carrie had no desire to be there again over the New Year. Monday, she and Elizabeth had walked eighty city blocks to add to the excitement. They ended that day by resting their sore muscles at a Pasta House in Times Square.
That day, the soft lights were shining just as they should, and the air was cool and gray, full of rain and promise of a week just the same.
Then there was Diana to say goodbye to that night. It would be sad to see her go. She was the first to head out and it would be so very strange to have her gone, really gone. Collette knew she would be homesick at first but she would definitely adjust, and would be there just the right amount of time before summer came. Then she would be ready to see everyone again for several months before heading back.
It had been another pleasant afternoon at home. Mom and the kids had come over while Joe and Rose were in choir and then Collette had taught them math afterward. There had been hot chocolate all around and some conversation on the upcoming Moss’ visit from Australia in early February. Joe was also keen on having OLeif come to Hidden Valley for the Boy Scout ski trip the following Friday night.
“Collette, you have to have OLeif come,” Joe begged. “And you have to come too. I’m going to write a big note for OLeif so he remembers to go.”
“Well, I’m sure he would like to…” Collette pictured him teetering down the bunny slopes, rocking from one ski to the other.
Joe quickly scribbled the note and left it on the dining room table, telling of all the “fabulousities” of Hidden Valley and the thrill of skiing at midnight as fast as one could go. Joe had actually been told to slow down before.
Then there had been a few rounds of dominoes with Linnea and some Styrofoam plane-flying with Francis before they left for the evening.
And then it was to boil some pasta and sauté some mushrooms to add with the baby tomatoes and parsley for OLeif’s dinner.
Dad called while they were over to check up on how Collette was feeling and if Joe and Rose were doing well in their math. Collette had good news to report on the progress in mathematical graphs, although she was still not quite over her cold of several months. She was convinced that she had allergies by that point in time anyway.