If Puck Organized the Day

“Uh… Mom?”

A bright-eyed boy with ruffly blonde hair stopped in his tracks as I walked out of my room.

“Yes?”

“Well, Dad and I were going to have a Minecraft meeting this morning… without you…”

Despite missing my VIP ticket to breakfast – goat cheese and kale omelet for Bær [now down 28.5 pounds] – I choked down Greek yogurt in the other room, running the finances for the day.

“What should we do then, Dad?”

“Build a treehouse?”

“That sounds… reasonable.”

Puck paused while Bær cautioned him to be obedient that morning.

“What do you think we should talk about?” Puck continued after a hasty acknowledgment of this warning.

“Kangaroos.”

“I mean, what do you think we should do tomorrow?”

“Magic tricks.”

Carrie texted me in the middle of the morning. Grandma’s car had been totaled. Drunk hit-and-run in the night, apparently. The police had to wake her up to explain.

While I heard about that, Puck had distracted himself – without even trying – from math. His worksheet was scribbled over in a rainstorm of pencil…

“What a beauty! What a beauty this is! Mom, just look at this! It’s such a beauty! It’s just so beautiful!”

This kid clearly has no issues with self-confidence.

“Perfectimento!” he gloated.

Then he lured Crackers to the window in a sing-song voice…

“Crackers!… Sparrows!… Crackers!… Sparrows!”

That afternoon, Puck walked up from the basement with Grandma Snicketts’ ceramic pig…

“Crackers tried to trip me and break the pig. She tried to trip me by running under the trampoline and making me drop the pig – crash. You’re going to bed early for this, Crackers. No buts about it.”

He escorted Crackers up and down the driveway in the cool afternoon, but no neighbor kids were available to play. I guess people go out and do things on Friday nights?