Gut It
I watched my youngest brother trying to maneuver two large pieces of bunkbed out of the basement. “Francis, maybe you shouldn’t move both of those at the same time…”
He just grinned. “It’s all possible when you have strength!”
Francis will take any opportunity possible to show off his muscles. Although this time, those muscles were actually needed. Five of six Snicketts kids were spending their Saturday in the Big House basement, cleaning out 30 years of memories before the big-time foundation repair. Of course the promise of a bonfire easily sucked in both boys, who also got busy burning endless piles of molded boxes, books, and papers. All those St. Louis rains hadn’t been kind to the Big House basement over the years.
“How about you wait for Elmer to help you…” I suggested, as Francis continued to struggle with the bunkbed frames.
“Because Elmer is busy carrying up his one little piece. So I’m going to bring up two pieces to make him feel bad.”
When Elmer returned to the basement, Francis suggested that he “pump up some jams” from the laptop and speakers in Francis’ room. Soon the whole basement was booming with Michael Jackson and JT.
Mid-day break for Carrie’s homemade Asian chicken noodle soup. Francis left both fire pits and the vacuum cleaner where he’d been trying to control the high winds and escaping flames.
“FRANCIS!” Carrie yelled at him through the window. “Stomp that out! It’s ruining the grass!”
As we sat around the table, Mom asked Elmer about Jaya’s experience in New York so far.
“So what are her plans for tonight?”
“Spending more of my money,” Elmer teased, already playing the old grumpy married man role pretty well after not quite two years in the books.
After lunch, the three girls retreated again to the basement, wearing surgical masks to ward against the black mold – “We’re all going to die,” Rose announced – to sort out the hundreds of books in Dad’s library.
Meanwhile the boys were outside chopping out all the landscaping, including the 19 year-old holly tree. Foundation repair is no joke.
After awhile Elmer called down the stairs, “Come check out these giant worms!”
Too tempting an offer to refuse. Almost the size of garden snakes.
By three o’clock, even Elmer’s father-in-law had joined the party to help the boys haul out some large boulders on the corner of the house with chains, and to chainsaw stuff. So Carrie paused to bake cookies for all of them. As far as the boys are concerned, food gets things done.