I'll not leave thee, thou lone one...
Saturday, September 30, 2006
It was Oktoberfest days in St. Charles, in September. So the beer and the pretzels would be passed around under the tents, accordions, folk dancers in suspenders and leiderhozen… down by the river.
Meanwhile, OLeif and Collette were headed in the opposite direction that Saturday evening, to Iwo and Strawberry’s apartment in the city.
Earlier, Friday night, Carrie had received a proposal of marriage from another Serbian. Carrie told him that they could get married for Christmas. Apparently the Serbian didn’t want to wait that long. Carrie got a good laugh out of the whole thing.
And Mom was taking Eleda and Linnea to Forest Park that afternoon with a basket of chicken fingers to meet Mr. McPheely from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. And Joe and Rose were heading down to Oktoberfest. People were bustling about as usual.
In the afternoon, OLeif received a phone call from his old pal in Arkansas, Arthur Duncun, who requested that OLeif be his best man in his wedding the following June. That would be the third wedding of the year…
Iwo and Strawberry lived in an two-family flat in a beautiful old neighborhood off of Kingshighway, in the second floor. Strawberry greeted them at the door in a faded circus t-shirt, a wrap-around green tye-died skirt and shuffly fuzzy slippers. Her hair had grown a little from her pixie-look and was dark brown, caramel, and blond.
“Hey, guys,” she greeted them, “up this way.”
She walked up the narrow stairs that led immediately from the door to the landing at the top where the walls were in the process of being painted sherbet orange.
“Sorry, Iwo’s still in the shower. It’s been a crazy day,” she said. “Make yourselves at home. I just have to get Iwo to get the groceries when he’s done.”
The landing was a hall. To the immediate left was a small room which led to the balcony. To the immediate right was the kitchen sandwiched by the bathroom and the bedroom. There was a small deck in the back. And right in front of them was the open-air dining room and living room – nine foot ceilings at least, black molding. The dining room walls were circus red and the table and chairs were painted multi colors. The living room walls were emerald green with dappled stripes of gold. Two stained glass windows sat at the top above the fireplace and shades were drawn on all the other windows. The floors were wood. Circus flora.
Strawberry scooted off after Iwo retrieved the groceries to bring out strawberries and a metallic-glass platter of cheese and crackers while Iwo served up sparkling grape and cider drinks in glasses.
Meanwhile, OLeif rested his boots on a scraggly multi-colored rug below the futon.
“I’m just afraid it’s going to slip out underneath me when I get up,” OLeif chuckled.
“Yeah, it is slippery,” Iwo said, pouring the drinks. “That was Strawberry’s fancy birthday gift. I have a friend who works at a rug company and he told me about this really ugly piece he had back in the store room. He brought it out and I said, ‘Strawberry might actually like that.’ So I told her about this beautiful gift I got her for her birthday, that I probably shouldn’t have spent so much, that it would take a little while to pay it off… Then I brought it out and she opened it and I kept it going saying that it was Bavarian sheeps’ wool… I could only keep it going for thirty seconds, but I kept it going.”
And so the guys swapped crazy work stories until Strawberry was laughing so hard the back of her head hurt.
Strawberry herself held three jobs, including COCA and the City Museum. And Iwo worked on million-dollar projects as head carpenter in the city for incredibly wealthy old Jewish women and the like. Strawberry worked with a tiny thirty-year old black man gymnast and a gay gothic clown, as she put it, at the City Museum. And then there was the eccentric Jewish woman who worked with her and usually brought her three children, three dogs, and a monkey (until it died).
Living in the city certainly had its differences. And it was good to see Iwo and Strawberry again. Before OLeif and Collette left, they were invited to attend a dress rehearsal at the City Museum the following afternoon.
The evening ended walking a few miles around Oktoberfest with Joe, Magnus, Wally, Curly, Rose, and Molly. Part of the time was spent near the Beer Garden where Wally and Curly got a kick out of watching the drunk people sing. The evening concluded with a very late dinner at Cracker Barrel.