Fire Crackers & Wasps

Back at the house.

Sometime in the afternoon, Collette chauffeured Francis, Creole, and Linnea to the fireworks stand for a fresh restock. As Linnea purchased a bottle rocket for a dollar and seventy-five cents, the friendly man behind the counter slipped a quarter back to her.
“We can do it for a dollar fifty,” he said. “No tax.”
As Linnea thanked him and left with Collette, she got a big grin on her face.
“I love this place!” she said. “I don’t have to pay the government!”
Before they had even entered the highway, a few high-powered snapdragons had been lodged out the window by the boys.
“Francis!” Collette scolded.
“Hey, it was Creole!”
“No,” said Creole, pointing to Joe who was just crossing over the highway in the big old green thing. “It was Joe.”
And the boys giggled.

Upon return, Linnea greeted her little neighbor friends and wheeled them up and down the street in the wheelbarrow. Then they switched into their swimsuits to play in the kiddie pool. Until…

The first catastrophe of the summer.
Linnea came in holding both her stomach and her back.
“Wasps,” she explained, gritting her teeth.
Two of them.
Mom quickly applied the baking soda.
And Linnea camped out on the love seat in the living room, until she had recovered enough to return to the pool.

After some further errands of the day, Collette left the boys at home to join the girls for a movie night — the new version of Mansfield Park — and chocolate chip cookies, where Dad had already ordered in 25 tacos.
Carrie and Rose had just returned from shopping and Rose helped Francis sort out the issue of the new cell phone, since Mom’s had been stolen, while Dad returned to reading 1,000 pages of studies before beginning the next phase of his PhD courses.

After the film had ended, Dad and Francis had their nightly punching match until Francis gave up, laughing, while Linnea left her room several times on pretense of being scared of spiders.
“I killed that one already,” Dad told her.
“I can still see him wiggling around!” Linnea protested until Dad came out to chase her back to her room.

Then Francis took off his shoes.

“Oh, Francis!” Carrie exclaimed, covering her nose with a blanket. “Oh, that’s horrible!”
Francis grinned.
The girls continued to protest the horrific stink, until Dad made Francis also remove his socks.
“Put those in the hamper,” they scolded him.
“Or outside and see if an animal runs off with them,” said Mom, laughing.