Joe is 22
Friday, September 3, 2010
22 Joe was.
Puck woke them promptly at seven o’clock for his breakfast.
“You’re going to work with the car today, Daddy,” he instructed.
“Nope,” OLeif replied. “I’m staying with you guys today.”
“Why? ‘Cause you want some cake?”
“Yes,” OLeif laughed. “’Cause I want some cake.”
Puck giggled. “You’re funny, Daddy.”
Most of the morning was spent in rolling Puck’s shiny flashing bouncy ball from Grandma Combs back and forth around the house. Then Puck made his ‘house behind the rose-colored chair with items collected from the rummage drawer that smelled like tomato incense from Provence. And there was the news Puck had to share with his daddy.
“Daddy, Lila gave me her world”
Lila had, indeed, graduated. ‘Lila’s World’ was no longer behind the rose-patterened loveseat in the living room, but had been transported to the basement. Her entire collection.
Before running errands, OLeif made tea, and then into the tolerably cool breezes of the early September morning.
While collecting groceries an half hour later, they came across Ethiopia who was purchasing items to make manicotti for his wife’s family, coming into town. His wife, Ruby-Julia, was feeling ill on the edge of her second trimester. And their little baby, due February 2, was to be a boy.
Back at the house, OLeif made lunch. He fried up tortilla squares into chips with salt and paprika. And chicken.
The air was cool. The winds were gorgeous. A beautiful day for Joe to become adult-adult.
Over at the house, Grandma Combs had arrived, and Mom and Linnea-Irish had just returned from the English’s house.
Linnea burst through the door. “I fell into the English’s creek that had E. coli in it!” she announced.
She spent the next half-hour looking up the symptoms of E. coli.
Then Grandma brought out the usual gifts to scatter around to her grandchildren, including a roasted marshmallow pen for Francis.
“I want one!” Mom exclaimed, laughing, when saw it.
So, Mom and Grandma chatted on the Adirondack chairs outdoors, Joe and Francis played frisbee while Puck begged piggy-back rides and shoulder rides and played several rounds of mancala with his mama and daddy. And Carrie fired up the grill with the slabs of pork tenderloins.
Soon, Dad and Rose also joined the group, and it was officially time to celebrate. But not before Rose had shared information of her exclusive tour of the church building, including: the boiler room with albino spiders, the ‘elephant record book’ dating back to 1856, etc., etc. But there had been no visit to the bell tower, because everyone but Rose had been too scared to go up inside it during the mammoth lightening storm going on outside…
And it was nearly time for dinner. Dad called the boys in from outside.
“Hey! Stop throwing dirt around out there!”
Carrie had laid out a complete feast: pork as tender as clouds, if that was a good description of pork tenderloins — Collette had only had it a handful of times in her life, garlic bread, salad, and, per Joe’s request, ‘buttered noodles’. There were also cold sodas to pass around, usually reserved for holidays and special occasions.
“This is amazing,” said Joe, as they all dived in.
Then they talked about Halloween costumes for the following month. Grandma Combs had already found Puck a dragon costume. And they reminisced about the time Joe had gone out as Andy Gibb with a disco ball hanging above his head.
“Dad should do that this year,” said Carrie. “It would reflect off of his head.”
“No,” said Dad, “I’m going to go out as the Six Flags Man.”
Then gifts. A new white bicycle mount for the wall from Grandma, and a quality three-man tent from the family.
Then later…
“How about cake?” Dad asked.
“Well, Grandma brought it, Dad,” said Carrie. “So… the question is…”
“Do you still want it?” Grandma finished, laughing.
“Well,” said Dad, being a smarty-pants as he always was with his mother-in-law, “not if it has guacamole on it or something weird like that…”
But Grandma had something to say to Francis, who had left a near-full slice of garlic bread still on his plate. Being a girl of the Depression, she could not help but to say something…
“What!” she exclaimed. “What! A perfectly good piece of bread! Give me that! I’ll take it home. Letting perfectly good bread go to waste…”
Francis just grinned.
And to Linnea…
“Is that a piece of good meat still on your plate? Why, that piece of meat is just like candy!”
“Mom!” Mom laughed, “How many times have I heard you say, ‘That’s just like candy!’ Of course it is — it’s all fat!”
So Carrie decorated Grandma’s chocolate cake covered in chocolate frosting and mini M’nMs with Grandma’s candles that spelled out ‘JOE’, ’22’ (in sparkly red), and a light-up, flashing ‘Happy Birthday’ sign that sang Happy Birthday. But before everything was lit, they all went outside to the back patio to watch two sparklers in the shape of ‘2’s’ pop and sputter. And Francis zoomed Puck around the yard through the air in his ‘rocket bike’. Back inside, after the song, Joe sliced up the cake, laughing at his attempt at smooth slicing. And then quarts of soft-serve DQ vanilla ice cream.
It was a grand feast and they all sat around for a time enjoying the goodness.
“See this cute little thing here?” Carrie asked, giving Rose a squish. “She came in last night when I was sleeping and gave me a kiss on the top of my head.”
Rose wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t.”
“Wasn’t that cute?” Carrie continued, with mischievous grin.
“Carrie had a dream,” Rose replied.
On the way home, they dropped off Linnea with Eleda, to spend the night.
Back home, nearing nine o’clock, Joe, Rose, and Magnus arrived, like the good old days, for entertainment and boxed cakes. Joe handed Magnus a Little Debbie’s strawberry shortcake roll.
“Eat it,” he commanded.
Magnus was not entirely enthusiastic about this concept. But he finally unwrapped the package, after contemplating first freezing it. Moments later, he came to his conclusion:
“I feel like I’m eating death.”
“Yeah, they should package things like that,” said Joe. “’Eat this, and you’ll die!’”
Later in the evening, OLeif looked skyward. “I should seal this ceiling,” he said.
“Yeah, with foam!” said Rose. “Then we could make stalactites!”
“Rose, you’re going to have such a weird house someday,” Joe laughed. “We’ll come inside and there’ll be a hundred cats…”
“Like a big jungle,” said Magnus.
“No, I’m going to have just one cat, I promise,” said Rose.
“Yeah, right.”
“A puma?” asked OLeif.
“Yeah, and it’ll attack people when I say a secret word like, ‘Spaghetti Sauce!’”
And it was all around a happy birthday for Joe.