Good Friday

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Good Friday had been a day of good amounts of boredom for at least three hours. Work had gone typically as usual for a Friday, except that this time, Collette was obliged to remain three hours longer. And she would continue working from nine to four, every Friday following. Of course, she had been dropped off at seven-fifteen, which made the day seem even longer.

Oceanus Dibbs had walked in at eight o’clock to fix up a good deal of odds and ends. First, he re-wired two of the old desk lamps. Collette had been given Ivy’s old lamp – a peculiar piece. Painted on it – scrolls and vines, birds and flowers, twisted trunks and leaves in orange, gold, and deep violet. A label on the porcelain base, read – est. 1775.

And then poor Oceanus found a water leak in the basement. He sweated and re-sweated the pipes until he left for a spell (likely a coffee break), and was still working on it when Collette left at four.

Then Ivy was off to pick up her daughter from Rolla for the Easter weekend. So despite the banging from the basement, the singing from Judah’s office, and the other obnoxious noises from the pipes and vacuums, Collette found herself quite relaxed and uncannily unable to find anything to do.

Once one o’clock rolled around, she read old bulletins for two hours and spent the last hour fixing miscellaneous odds and ends to the day. Meanwhile, she had thought about what OLeif was up to during certain times of the day. Seven-thirty to eleven-thirty: he was at work in a room with no windows. Eleven-thirty to one: lunch of fried fish and buttered corn. One to two-thirty: madrigal practice for his comedic advise. Two-thirty to four: dropping off his sketches to the artist at the tattoo parlor.

She was pleased, that evening, to spend a few hours with OLeif at home over pretzel bites and a large lemonade. Another week was completed and she could enjoy the holiday.

It was a day of clouds once more, as had been the rest of the week. Gray skies, and not surprisingly, Collette did not feel as though Easter was really only a day away. None of the past dozen holidays, or so, had really felt like holidays.

Mom and Carrie-Bri had come by to pick her up for the afternoon, as OLeif was with the youth for a day of work and pizza. Israel had also come to spend the day with Francis. But first there were some errands to be run.

“Ooooh,” Carrie looked out the window admiringly, as they passed the fire house, “let’s go to the Easter egg hunt at the fire station.”

“Carrie,” Mom snorted a laugh at her.

First, there was a stop by Target. And as the boys scoured the toy aisles for the latest Lego and automobile novelties, the girls looked for other things. Collette managed to find her package of socks and her muffin tin. And then there was a bottle of shampoo to get for OLeif. Collette was highly tempted to get him a girly scented type – such as banana flower or star fruit, but decided against it in the end. Even a “teddy bear” should have some dignity, she decided. And for Linnea’s Easter dress – Collette found a lavender ballet gown with little delicate pansies sewn from ribbon to the waist, and a pair of little white leather ballet flats. She was quite pleased upon trying them on at home.

At the grocery shop, there was lunch to buy and another several bottles of peach iced tea for Carrie’s not-so-secret stash in her bedroom.

There was a peanut display by the magazine stand inside. And for the advertisement, a grand pirate with flamboyant black hat, swashbuckling red coat, and long black boots, lorded his over-sized self over the peanut jars. Mom did ask the customer service gentleman if it were possible to purchase such a display piece once the peanut stand was removed. However, he was sad to say that the magnificent pirate was to be sent to another store, upon retiring.

At home, during another episode of the infamous Midsomer Murders, Collette stuffed Easter eggs and she and Carrie proceeded to hide them as best as possible in the bushes and tree branches of the back yard. The silver Easter egg prizes were awarded. Linnea’s was a set of four miniature potted plants with seeds for chives, lavender, black-eyed susans, and forget-me-nots.

While Carrie and Joe then involved themselves in an aviation class with Dad, OLeif called. Yes, he had been quite busy. The matter that had been on his mind so long was finally in place. He called with the news. And the room was soon abuzz with the latest – OLeif had just taken two tattoos, one on either arm. “Soli Gratia” and “Sola Fide”. It was a very serious thing for him and no one laughed about it. Although they didn’t quite believe it at first, when told.

And for the remainder of the evening, the boys ramped small tires at thirty miles per hour off OLeif’s car. Carrie had friends over – Elizabeth, Peter Pretzel, and Louis Tecumseh – and later went to a coffee lounge down in the city where computer geeks hung out. And the others watched a version of Little House. Odd how days usually turned out much better than they were originally intended to.

In the end of it, there was much to think about. And Collette did not always know where to begin.