In Moderation

“Want to ride the World of Wonder, Crackers? Come on in. It’s free.”

This was Puck’s way of enticing the cat back into Bær’s black umbrella, twirling like a carnival ride over the linoleum. Crackers wasn’t biting.

I let these two sort it out while I finished the fried eggs – poked and flattened yolks; they taste better this way – and prepared for our early departure. This is always a perpetually interrupted task…

“Help help!”

“¿Qué?”

[We try to weakly sneak this Spanish in wherever, however.]

Of course he was standing on both sides of the doorknob, swinging on the bathroom door.

Science Center.

Omnimax.

“Could we please eat popcorn this time?” Puck had asked, before arrival. “We will eat it slow, one piece at a time.”

$5.38 bought a decent paper sack of buttered popcorn, and no kidding but the kid ate every piece one at a time, holding the bag like a newborn.

“Mom. Mom, you can only have one piece at a time so that it will last longer. We have to save some for the movie theater.”

The movie: Jerusalem.

I pointed out sites where I had walked, almost six years ago now. Puck whispered frequent questions, upping his one-at-a-time policy to maybe four-at-a-time. Finally he pushed the sack towards me…

“Take it away from me, Mom!”

I was sluggish by the afternoon. Fortunately Puck had finished his school for the next ten days, so we lolled around. He watched some domino races online…

“How come we don’t have any dominoes, Mom?”

“I don’t know. We just don’t.”

“A house without dominoes is no house at all,” he determined.

Puck was scared of my suggestion for dinner: cheese ravioli.

“Well, you didn’t want fish,” I reminded him.

“I like fish with lots of delights with it,” he protested. “like salad… and tomato…”

He had a salad.

Weirdo.

Jaya was visiting the humble abode for the first time. Our Firefly. Cracker box. What-have-you. But the girls were busy so we four landed in the basement with a pizza and “Unicorn City” on Netflix.