Just Puck and the Girls
“Mom?”
“Yes, bud?”
“Did you write all those post cards from Donkey?”
I looked at him in the rearview mirror, both plush Donkey and horse cuddled up against his face. Post cards “from Donkey” sent to him several years ago when Donkey had gone traveling in Scandinavia [a.k.a. “missing”].
“I did.”
“Aw. I wish Donkey had written them. I wish he was real.”
“Well…” careful, Collette, careful. “Maybe… maybe in Heaven there will be a donkey just like Donkey. So your stuffed donkey is sort of a little picture of the real one… Maybe.”
“Yeah, but I want my stuffed donkey and my horse to be in Heaven.”
“Well, you never know. Even when this world is over, and it is destroyed, it will all be put together again and made new and better and perfect.”
“Yeah, and there won’t be any dying, and the trees won’t die and their leaves fall to the ground.”
“Well, right, there won’t be any death. But I wonder if maybe trees will still lose their leaves because they also look pretty on the ground.”
“Yeah, and sometimes trees falling over are nice, too. Because kids love to play on logs. And trees falling over creeks… Speaking of which, there’s a bent tree over there…”
Puck walked into the Big House. He stared at Snuggles. He had heard stories, and apparently felt the need to scold…
“I heard a long time ago that you vomited up on my mom’s computer cord.”
Snuggles ignored him.
Carrie stretched herself out on the couch. “Give me a kiss, Puck.”
“Sun…”
“Come on, Puck. I have a stomachache.”
“Why?”
“Because I ate raw cookie dough and buttermilk.”
“That’s absurd. Why did you eat that?”
“I don’t know!”
Mom was in Kansas City with Grandma, so it was just us three girls with Puck. What did that mean? Family home videos.
The subject of Dad’s hair graying did come up during lunch. Linnea had a suggestion…
“Could we dye Dad’s hair?”
“Are you kidding, Linnea? Dad would never ever ever.”
“We could do it in his sleep.”
Puck spent some time in the tree swing that afternoon and the cold, over red-brown leaves…
“I’m praying to God right now, thanking Him for all the wonderful things that He gives us.”