Home Again

Back in the U.S.A. It was great to be home to their chubby.
The trip had been wonderful, of course. Nearly everything Collette had hoped it to be for her first trip to Iceland. Complete with mountains, geysers, glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, and even a jammed knee and subtle hypothermia from horse back riding. It had all been pretty great. Pictures/video slideshow and gifts would be presented to the family likely the following Monday night after Dad had returned from Cedar Falls, and Mom, from the church ladies’ retreat.
While they had been gone, Puck had learned new words and expressions, new strategies, and new whines. He had also received a dashing new haircut, and looked rather charming in it. Collette couldn’t stop giving him squeezes and kissing his chubby cheeks after she and OLeif had been picked up from the airport by Mom, Carrie-Bri, and the Puckster. Puck had run to her calling loudly and gave her a big hug, until he became embarrassed and began trying to distract her attentions to nonexistent vacuum cleaners somewhere in the distance.
Meanwhile, Monday morning, OLeif was relieving his stomach again at nearly 5:30, after waking from another splitting headache at one o’clock. Collette deduced that he must have migraines, which would explain his unusually severe headaches following lack of sleep, caffeine withdrawal, changes in the temperature and air pressure, etc. So the poor man waited it out several hours more until his headache was manageable enough by 8:00 to go into work to share stinky dried fish chips and boxes of his new favorite candy from Iceland known as “Opal”.
Over at the house, Puck was back in exploration mode, as usual, watching for new things, and easily entertaining himself with whatever he found to do.
He saw an ant meandering up the kitchen wall.
“Bug,” he said happily. “Hi, bug.”
Collette, a little dazed by the afternoon, having been awake since four o’clock that morning, supervised Puck and caught up with everything from the family and her paperwork, etc., as the day slowly began to cloud over outside.
“Rain’s coming this evening,” said Mom, returning from her hair appointment. “Let’s get those plants in the ground.”
She was joined by Carrie with the shovel, and Puck with his donkey, and Collette following with his sippy. Carrie and Mom had ordered pampas grass to spread between the burning bushes in the backyard.
Carrie dug the holes. Mom planted the grasses. And Puck stuck his chubby hands into the bag of potting soil and dropped the handfuls into the holes. He was very happy to help.
He was later joined by Linnea with a huge bucket of water, which he stirred with a large stick and giggled as he splashed both of them. Linnea washed off the molding pennies that Carrie had found in the old grass mound in the corner of the yard that Collette had left there years in the past as a sort of “treasure hunt” for Francis and Linnea.
“This one’s from 1982,” she Linnea, scratching at the surface of the disintegrating penny.
“Who would have thought years later you’d be digging up really ancient coins over in Israel,” said Carrie.
At home, Puck walked around the newly opened tulips in bright reds, yellows, oranges, pinks, purples, and whites.
“Fwowers!” he called to them happily.