Hello, Napoleon
Rain again.
By the time Puck was dropped off in the school gym, it had stopped. Yali sat on a chair in the school office while I sorted out more tickets for the ballgame the following week. He waited without complaint by way of goldfish crackers and raisins gifted by one of the ladies in the office who keeps an endless supply for such situations.
By three o’clock – carpool – another gaggle of kids had infiltrated Hans’ 2nd grade classroom to rummage for candy. Before I completely realized it, five kids (Yali included) were standing around with suckers and Smarties, sugaring it up for the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Puck had been dumpster diving again. I figure he’ll graduate from elementary school one of these days with the title – “Most Likely to Dumpster Dive”.
Things started getting a little more active again as the sugar settled in, very quickly. The headmaster paused in the doorway on his way back from carpool.
“It smells like kid in here,” he observed.
“Sweaty kid!” Hans added.
Movie night was a mile marker in Puck’s young life of movie watching. “Napoleon Dynamite” was on the menu for the evening. His first-ever viewing. Jaya’s also, remarkably.
Puck stacked couch cushions in the old plastic jungle gym in the basement, stocked himself with pillows, and reclined for the film with a sleeve of Pringles. Lightning flashed soundlessly through the windows as we entered small town Idaho.
The giggles got flowing pretty quickly as Puck was introduced to Napoleon and his cronies. It helped that he was already getting into music from the 80s on his own anyway.
And considering that most of Elmer’s high school experience had been modeled after this guy, Jaya probably had just a little more explanation as to why her husband acted the way he did in most areas of his life. It was sort of a life-changer for a large part of America back in the day. And Elmer was no exception.
It didn’t take long for Puck to come to a conclusion regarding Napoleon Dynamite.
He laughed, “That guy looks like he doesn’t care about anything he’s doing.”