Fieldtrips for Puck
Sunday, June 3, 2007
The rain fell that Saturday morning.
In the afternoon, OLeif, Collette, and Puck took a drive downtown to Union Station.
On the west wing was still the old Flag Shop and the grand banquet hall upstairs with the whispering archway. They visited the toy store where shelves bulged with pirate books and rubber knights and finger puppets. Puck strolled through in awe of the movement, the colors (whether or not he could see them yet), and the sounds.
Next came the fudge shop where the employees belted out native-sounding sometimes-wordless tunes as they stirred the copper kettles and banked the fudge with large paddles on marble countertops. Seeing as they were running a special for the day, OLeif and Collette indulged a bit and ordered four wedges of fudge: “Extreme Chocolate”, mint chocolate, peanut butter, and one with nuts (which only OLeif would eat).
Upon return, Puck eagerly chowed down his bottle and entered dreamworld, while OLeif turned on a little Spongebob for the evening.
Sunday morning – Judah and Evangeline’s first anniversary. Although Evangeline had attended another class over the weekend at Wash-U, they had still made time to visit a winery for breakfast, Thursday.
Over at the house, Puck laughed at the clock on the wall.
Collette would have visited Lhasa that morning – Rooftop of the World. But there were other plans, such as church and Jo-Jo’s graduation tiki-torch party.
A number of people arrived from church – Judah and Evangeline, Mr. and Mrs. Cross, Sinai, Mr. and Mrs. Rum, Mrs. Nickels and Goofy (although Mr. Nickles was in Brazil at the time), Susie and Sunrise, Ben-Hur, Mr. and Mrs. Coca-Cola, Mr. and Mrs. Honey, and Stan-o and his mother, of course. The McCrae’s back lawn was filled in one corner with a cascading clear-water pond of koi, all of which seemed exceedingly content to swim in circles, waiting for fish food. The end of the lawn joined a meandering wood which led into the neighbor’s yard shaded by tall trees above ivy and stone paths.
The late yellow topaz light of the evening flooded across the green into the party where Molly’s five cakes were enjoyed after fried chicken, biscuits, and red beans and rice. A firepit was lit in the back circle and round grass rugs were set on the lawn for Jo-Jo and her friends, who pulled out guitars and mandolins at sunset.
And the wind in the bush was occasionally tuned right enough to satisfy Collette’s desire to see Tibet that evening.