Ides of March

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The Ides of March – and like Caesar, there would be others going under the knife that day, all across the globe. Surgery after surgery, except that this time, they knew one of the many. Within hours, Mrs. Pretzel would be there among the doctors, waiting for her time. Collette knew that there would be little mirth during the coming hours and hoped that she would hear soon about the results.

Collette was not exactly sure what to think that day. She was praying and hoping for a miracle that cold March morning. There seemed little to do other than wait and get things done around the apartment as usual.

Linnea had been reminding her weekly:

“Collette, we have to plan our trip. I think we should go to the Caribbean first, because we have to find some pirates.”

They had even spent the previous morning, for a while, looking up world cruises and had found an excellent one scheduled to see Chile, Argentina, Morocco, Spain, and Italy. It would be quite fabulous, but world cruises were astronomical. And Collette knew that while it was fun to plan, she could only hope she could follow through and actually take Linnea and Francis where they hoped to go.

The cat was no longer to go to Shepherd and Malaya, as her cat was now not only deaf, but had skin cancer as well, unfortunately. And so Dad had begrudgingly allowed the cat to come for two weeks until a new home could be found for the poor calico fluff ball.

“Oh, yay!” Francis had exclaimed upon hearing. “We get to keep the cat!”

“No, no,” Dad assured them all. “The cat will have its death sentence after two weeks if you can’t find another home for it.”

But he tried not to smile, and everyone could guess what would rather happen.

Rose was also thrilled.

“Oh, goodie! I promise we’ll take care of it, Dad. Don’t worry.”

“Yes, that’s what you said about Trooper and the other cats. Mm-hmmm.”

“I promise, Dad. We really will.” Rose was adamant.

The day seemed to drag in a strange manner and yet at the same time, Collette saw the clock telling nearly noon. There was nothing else to be done. Shepherd had still not called from the hospital, and no one knew anything.

Denae called to reserve madrigal dinner tickets for OLeif and Collette. Mom called to get details on applying for the calico.

The sun continued to stream through the dust shades in annoying patterns. Collette wished the sky would gray. After all, the sun didn’t seem appropriate for the mood of the morning. However, somehow she figured the sun would bring cheer to Mrs. Pretzel. She was already nearly two hours into surgery. Collette figured that the old proverb applied best – no news is good news.

It was some time later that some news trickled in. Shepherd had told OLeif a good deal of the details, although OLeif decided to relay them upon arriving home that evening. “Vague” might have been a good word for it.

“We wait and see. He said, all and all, everything is good.”