June 6

Hansel and Gretyl were over at the house all day while Lady was painting an eyeball for a client. When Collette pulled up to the house, Hansel was on top of the trailer while Gretyl pulled on the tree branches above his head, scratching him on the face.
“Oww!” Hansel yelled. “That really hurts!! Stop it!!”
Linnea and Gretyl giggled at him.
“Rose is hiding in her room,” said Carrie. “It’s been a little loud this morning.”
When the crew came back inside, Gretyl ran over to Puck laughing loudly and making crazy faces.
“Hi, Puck!” she crooned to him.
Puck burst into tears while Gretyl danced for him. It took him most of the day to get used to her level of energy.
Earlier, Carrie had taken the three of them to the park.
“When we got there,” said Carrie, “Gretyl said, ‘Oh, I thought we were just going to drive around.’ Then Hansel said, ‘Are you crazy! With these gas prices! They’re the highest they’ve been in centuries!’”
Later, Amelia also came over. For lunch, Mom and Carrie set out a spread of chicken nuggets, canned 7-Ups, and Cheetos. Added to this was the plate of cookies Carrie had baked earlier that morning.
It was Nintendo night at OLeif’s. Around 7:30, almost everyone had arrived: Curly, Magnus, Curly’s friend from church, Erasmus, Joe and Rose, Ben-Hur, Augustus, and Mollie. Everyone camped out in the basement over popcorn, chips, and sodas.
Magnus brought out his giant sketchpad and began to add portraits of OLeif and Rose in red chalk between eating oranges. The boys were yelling at the Nintendo and laughing at inappropriate outbursts of semi-manly behavior. Somehow, the Puck slept through it all. For part of the night, at least four people were sitting on a row on the couch with their laptops. Mollie came for awhile before leaving to watch a movie with a friend. It had been a long time since everyone had been together again, and Collette realized that, for as much as people had changed in little ways, not much had changed. It was still kind of like the old days.
By midnight, the crowd had scattered into the warm, wet, muggy night.