Jack 'o Lanterns and Rainy Skies

Monday, October 31, 2005

(7:35am) Ah, another Reformation/Halloween day… And it promised to be a cool rainy to-do. So Collette got to wear her black top, but covered it with a toasty green sweater of sorts with a turtleneck. And she wore a bracelet Rose had just beaded, of heavy stamped silver balls and several odd and assorted beads of buckeye and toast colors, taken from an old necklace Rose had busted from the youth auction. It was quite an original piece.

The morning was, indeed, gray and rainy (which delighted Collette) and there were more pumpkin carvings and corn chowder and sweet brown rolls for lunch while Collette tutored Joe and Rose in German, collected Joe’s paycheck stubs for his new ledger, and reviewed the Hillsdale Classical School curriculum Dad gave her to study. Linnea practiced “Sing We Now of Christmas” on the piano while Joe listened to his choir tape and stuck burning incense sticks into his little pumpkins for ears. And Carrie, who had a week’s break of school now that 49 college credits were sitting in her name, prepared the pirate make-up for Linnea’s costume. And for the remainder of the early afternoon, Collette prepared November syllabuses for Joe and Rose, and Carrie ran Rose up to Walgreen’s for white face paint. Carrie would not get it herself, for she was dressed in a sleeveless red sport’s shirt, black wool duster, St. Louis Blues sweatpants, and an old pair of clogs.

Meanwhile, earlier, Carrie had carved a pumpkin with parts of its eyes black and white with nail polish, throwing up all its seeds on the front porch. And she had plans to make a red box and place it on Joe’s head with the front cut out for his face, and he would wear a t-shirt labeled “Kissing Booth: 25 Cents” along with lipstick kisses on his face.

Collette enjoyed a time of prayer over the afternoon and spent some time typing up documents and refining ideas over various things as the rain fell steadily, dripping from the old redbud tree where all the brown beans cried tears. Or perhaps they were only enjoying an autumn shower with their golden leaved companions.

Meanwhile, Collette wondered what she would do about Texas. Theodore and Denae planned to rent a cabin on the river, and Relevance and Kitts would accompany them. No doubt Kitts and Denae would be making apple and pumpkin pies, thick salads, and other such things, but Collette decided that she might just bring a cold macaroni salad with ham and spices, and cheese. And she had forgotten that she would likely not even need a sweater for the whole trip, but only a t-shirt. All she could remember of Texas was flat brown frost-covered prairie and tumbleweeds, lots and lots of tumbleweed… And that was all she had seen, for miles. There were certainly no fields of bluebells or white sand beaches when she had driven through. But she had obviously come at the wrong season, and had only seen the panhandle, which was likely the most dull of the whole state.

And for the rest of the late afternoon, Collette lit some candles on the hearth, fried herself a balogna sandwich, and read some more of Out to Canaan, the fourth Mitford book. And OLeif came back from work with a steel penny from 1943 and to say that Shepherd had already scheduled two interviews for the week. Such lovely days…