Gypsies & Shish Kebobs
Monday, May 30, 2005
It was yet another Memorial Day. It began in a rather untraditional manner with a trip downtown for Mom, OLeif, Collette, Carrie-Bri, Joe, and Rose. It was a gypsy bazaar, an unconventional fair, including illegal items such as military medals and archaeological artifacts.
Carrie managed to find a ring crafted of silver scrolls for Elizabeth, and Mom bought a magnetic hematite bracelet for Grandma Combs and Rose. OLeif, meanwhile, was interested in the food, including ice cream and strawberry ice, hot dogs and chicken shish kebobs… Carrie and Collette attempted to steer him in the opposite direction, but to no avail. He settled on a bag of fried potato chips, which they munched on throughout the grounds. But there was a party to get on with back home, and so they left after a short period of time.
On the way, Rose read aloud from her book about a thousand things – of Dante Rosetti, who buried his wife with several of his unfinished manuscripts. Upon reopening her casket to retrieve the manuscripts years later, they discovered that his wife’s hair had continued to grow after her death, and the casket was full of it.
There were many groans…
Meanwhile, Carrie laughed at Joe, who had just finished working out with the older Coca-Cola boy.
“Yeah, it’s so funny – whenever they lift something, they’ll write down how much they lifted. So they’ll write down, like – ’60… possibly more.’ Or – ’60… probably more’.”
They also discussed Saint Louis, and how it was the fourth most dangerous city in the United States, following Detroit, Atlanta, and some other place in New Jersey. And it was the most unhealthy city to live in. But for all that, it was a great city. Surely, Saint Louis also had the highest rate of homicide in the country, which didn’t help. Certain neighborhoods the police did not even watch, they were so bad… But then again, there was so much more out there. Saint Louis was one of the wealthiest cities in the nation, and was known for baseball, beer, and medical centers. But this was primarily boring. The old fair grounds and the beautiful boating lake were a fine place to start.
“You know Great-Grandpa lost his watch in that lake,” Mom said.
“Ooooh, I bet there’s a whole bunch of stuff in there, over a hundred years old,” Carrie said, with mysterious eyes.
“Yeah, and I guess they never drained it.”
“We should go boating, and I’ll bring a net and drag it in the water behind me… all casual like.” Carrie said.
“Better yet,” OLeif spoke up from the cock-pit, “wear a scuba suit under your normal clothes, and just kind of fall backwards over the edge of the boat.”
“Yeah – clear!” Carrie laughed. “I’d slip in subtly, by the bridge, where no one would see me.”
Meanwhile, as they laughed this over, Collette thought about other things. She was haunted by the dream from the night before; it had stayed with her through the day. In addition, she was thinking about the prayers over the past ten days since Saturday, and she decided there was still much to think through over that…
They arrived home several minutes before the Silverspoons came for an all-out barbecue, courtesy of Dad and Theodore (including pork steaks, hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, and shish kebobs).
Later, Kitts joined the crowd around the tiki torches to relay the comical and dramatic attempt of an elopement over that weekend, by two new acquaintances. And earlier, there were many rounds of Xtreme badminton and a viewing at the movies of – “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
Collette admitted that she did enjoy the film in a way. There were several funny parts. And – it was rather fabulous to think about other planets, other worlds, ideas, galaxies and universes… not that they really existed. She was pretty much fine with the idea of Earth and the other few cold planets circling without life-forms in the far beyond. But it was fun to think up such places in her mind, or write them out. Perhaps this was one reason Star Wars had recently become so appealing to her.