February 21
Chapter 2,088
In which a day at home is in order…
The rain as they woke; that was nice.
Puck was full of zip.
4:58.
“I feel better again, Mama!”
Better enough to pull the sillies and eat a large breakfast without prodding.
Nearing eleven, Puck called Francis to see that his ‘toe surgery’ had been a success.
“I’m bringing crutches for you tomorrow,” Mom had said the previous afternoon at lunch.
Francis shook his head.
“There is no way I am walking out of there with crutches,” he said.
Just like Dad.
“The toenail thought that your big toe was its home, but it was not,” said Puck to Francis.
Meanwhile, though Puck’s cold did seem less severe, the accompanying emotions of the sickness inclined him to be rather concerned about the matter of the old heavens and the old Earth burning away at the end of time…
“Will my washrag burn?” he asked, half-tearfully.
(He had become rather attached to washcloths in the past 24 hours. Effective face-washers.)
Collette attempted explanation.
“God is going to take that washcloth and make it something better.”
“I don’t want it better.”
“But even when everything burns, the atoms will still be there, I guess, and God will take those atoms and make something beautiful. So the washrag will become something very wonderful…”
Somehow she had not convinced her audience…
The day continued.
Tinashe of Zimbabwe.
Mark Twain’s travels in Hawai’i.
The chubb-chubb down for a nap, sleepy little fellow. He was zonked, and didn’t wake again for over two hours.
After a hot bath and pleading for Collette to add a Zimbabwean mbira to his birthday wish list, Puck was pepped again, and spent his afternoon with Pingu while Collette looked over endless projects.
OLeif returned after six, bearing sandwiches for dinner, as the cupboards were bare.
In other news…
Alfonso and Velvet were having twins.
And Collette’s cough persisted, though less so.