Introducing the “Pastel Pretties”
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Eleda’s 9th birthday – and she was getting taller by the day. It seemed to Collette that out of all the English family, Eleda most closely resembled Diana than any of the others.
Back on Tuesday evening, Carrie had dressed Joe and Rose for the concert at the Sheldon – Joe in black pants, white shirt, and tie (which hung rather low in the U-City fashion), and Rose in all billowing white and her hair in pigtails. Collette found it quite interesting to see the change in outfit from day to day, according to Carrie’s dressing advice, which also varied from day to day.
The concert was quite fair – the quartet being made up of the eighteen year-old cellist, Jan Vermeer, (who had been playing cello in the St. Charles County Youth Orchestra since Collette had first joined nine years before), violist, Amymone-Beroe, whom Collette did not recognize, with Lolly on second violin, and Jo March as first violin. All were in the prestigious St. Louis Youth Symphony.
As Collette listened to the music, she found herself enjoying it. And yet, as she looked about at the people in the crowd whom she knew, she also found herself realizing that she had very little recollection of what it had been like to move in the classical crowd. There they were – all the young musicians in the current home schooled crowd – everyone, from Magnus, Wallace, Curly, the March family, Denae, Mr. Sing, the Souths, Ernies, Spritzs, Annamaria, Annabelle Spritz, Ariel Ernie, Starr Hobcoggin, Collie Hart, Brunhilda Cuppett, Imogene Lentils, previous alumni – Old Blue and Cashmere Ernie (who wore a large pink silk rose on her ponytail), two years in college, to the “pastel pretties” (all the current early high school girls) who mostly believed that any music but classical music was evil, or worse – stupid. There they all were – each girl with her long hair slicked back, sitting primly, giggling primly, and whispering importantly about piano concertos in high necked sweaters. Collette supposed it sounded cruel to describe them thus. She had once nearly been one herself. And yet there seemed to be a glass bubble encasing them which read, permanently cut into the glass – “I will never see the real world”. Yes, it was mean of Collette. And yet sometimes she wondered whether the world didn’t actually need people like that, to stabilize. It was the sort of thought which ended in a sigh and was forgotten.
And there was some show-stopping weather hovering around the city as the concert played. It came on the wind of the night – a great storm which lit up the depths of the black sky. Melting glows soaked in the deepest ocean of light when the lightening rippled amongst the clouds. OLeif, Collette, Joe, and Rose drove home towards it, discussing various things, but mostly, Rose’s desire to enter an Academy of Art on the west coast.
“I’m going to San Francisco!” She explained.
This threw Collette off guard, as she had never heard Rose express any earthly desire to see California, and she replied subsequently:
“Rose, you can’t just show up at the San Fransisco Academy of Art and say, take me. You would have to show them some of your work.”
“I can too!” Rose exclaimed.
And from there on out, OLeif and Joe took over dialogging – what, exactly, such an experience would be for Rose, in her own words:
“I’m coming here!”
“Where’s my class!”
“Fish on your face!”
“Apple on your head!”
“You’d better get out of my way or I’ll throw pig eyeballs at you.”
[The pig eyeballs were actually Rose’s idea.]
“Can you actually see Rose with a bucket of pig eyeballs on campus?” OLeif laughed. “She would be such a famous artist.”
“You’ll bring the cat to class,” Joe laughed, “and you’ll force it to stay there.” And then he began to dialog again. “Sit there, squishy! Meoooooooooooooorow! Squishy! Mrrrrrrow!”
“And I’d drive a car made out of buttons,” Rose added ruefully, for no reason in particular.
“Woof, oink, moo!”
And it carried on in this manner between the boys until Joe was practically crying with laughter over OLeif’s shoulder.
So it went as they drove back in the night while the magnificent electrical storm lit up the skies above St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Collette arrived at the house Wednesday morning to find Rose filling out an application for the Academy of Art. She was grumpy with Linnea.
“I came back home last night and my room looked like a monkey had been in it! She put a powder puff and a starfish in the fountain for one thing…”
“A starfish?”
“Frances said it would come back to life! And I wanted to save it!” Linnea’s eyes were wide in protest.
Collette walked back out of the room and nearly ran over Frances, laying on the floor in a huge blanket. He looked like a big yellow butterfly. He was giggling.
“Heh heh. She fell for it.” His big front tooth chuckled a funny Frances chuckle.
“Frances!” Linnea had heard him. “Now I got in trouble!”
“But I thought you took it out,” he protested.
Later on after history, papers, and other things, Mom came back with bundles of fruits and vegetables after choir for the new amazing juicer. One package held several pounds of nice crispy red…
“Rhubarb!” Mom said.
“Rhubarb? You got rhubarb,” Dad almost complained. “I always mow over that stuff.”
Collette was unaware that they had ever had rhubarb in the back yard, but of course, she had once found wild green beans there by the hammock tree and beautiful little purple flowers (shaped like the towering bourgeoisie French wigs of the court in the 1700’s).
And so Collette, Linnea, and Mom worked on juicing a few apples which were pretty good. Carrie attended to a long walk with Elizabeth before checking into the new Picasso’s coffee house in Old St. Charles. Dad sent Joe over to Simple Simon’s to pick up pizza for dinner. Frances designed more military warfare on notebook paper. Mom got ready to go with Dad and take Frances and Linnea to the rock mound to run around, and Collette helped Linnea with her Central American geography while waiting to meet OLeif up at church for junior high youth, which was crazy as always.