It's the last rose of summer...
Friday, September 22, 2006
It would be autumn at precisely 11:03 that night.
Collette was reminded that morning of a cool autumn Saturday, similar to the day before, when Grandma and Mom had taken them all and Linus (who had brought his skateboard with him) over to a small Illinois town by the river for Carrie to search for ghosts in a local haunted bookstore. Her quest was not satisfied. However, Grandma had purchased for her there a book on unexplained and curious phenomena. Afterward, they visited a cornfield maze for all of the kids under the same gray skies and there were treats of candy corn and the like.
But despite the beauty of the day, Collette was hurting for her old friend, Mercy Pretzel. Sometimes God directed life events in ways that his creation didn’t understand. His ways were not their ways.
And, despite the autumn sunshine of the early morning, storms were on the brink.
Somewhere around lunch time at the office, Rose trekked in with a bag of Taco Bell quesadillas, a Pepsi, and bulging bag of Target items, including a robin’s egg blue shirt, Auzzie hair spray, make-up, white gum, a shimmering blue pendant necklace, and polka-dot underwear. She laid her spoils on the table and read Nancy Drew over lunch.
Later, as she folded the bulletin, she thought out loud:
“We should have edible bulletins.”
“That sounds unsanitary,” Collette said, stapling another bulletin. “Think about how many people would have touched your bulletin before you got it.”
“No, they’d be individually wrapped… and dispensed.”
Rose asked Judah his thoughts.
“But then they’d have a big bite mark out of the song they have to sing.”
“But it would stop their stomachs from growling during church.”
“You’re crazy, Rose. That’s crazy. Crazy talk!”
Later, Rose became side-tracked, giving voice commands to her cell phone.
“Look! I’m training my phone.”
And shortly after that, she found a thin wrinkled black snake outside the office door and tried to catch it with a box top and a waste basket. But it slithered away before she could make her capture.
Then it was off to Augustus’ for Joe and Rose for the Twilight Zone and snacks.
Meanwhile, as the storms tossed about things in the south, OLeif picked up Collette from work and they left for the Snicketts. After pizza casserole, they loaded back into the cars and drove down the road to the St. Peters Cultural Arts Center where a folk benefit concert was being held, including Flint River in the performance.
As they left the house, rain fell heavy from rose-brown clouds. Upon turning around, OLeif pointed out to the rest of them the tumbles of clouds in the east – clouds so white against the gold, that they glowed with an unearthly light, so white they were blue, glowing from inside.
The concert presented various “artsy suburban” folks, as OLeif described them, and bowls of pretzels and popcorn on the tables. After two and a half hours of music, they called it a night shortly after ten o’clock, before the equinox.