Last Four
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
When Puck decided to switch on the lights early, his routine was to body-slam whoever was not yet risen. Given that OLeif shoved off between five and five-thirty most days, the job of receiver, usually fell to Collette…
“Watch my head, buddy.”
“And now, for the grand finale!” he declared, about as happy as ever. “We disappear each other!”
He followed this by breaking out into spontaneous rhythmic poetry on inspiration of the moment…
“Bunny cheeks are cute! Bunny cheeks are cute! Bunny cheeks are cute! The end.”
As Collette scooped up some breakfast for the energetic chap, she asked him a question, per Rose’s request. Present-time was just around the corner, and she needed ideas.
“Puck. Onion wants to know – what are your three favorite things in the world?”
After a moment of yogurt-spooning deliberation, he replied…
“God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
“Ok. Ok… That’s good…”
– Collette thought of another was to phrase the question. –
“So what about things that you can see down here, things you can…”
“My baby brother,” Puck replied immediately, digging for another spoon of creamy strawberry dairy. “That is all.”
Finally, when pressed, Collette managed to get out something a little more worldly, and a little less alive. The revised list checked in at…
1. “tree shirts” [t-shirts]
2. dinosaur books
3. “my very own broom”
Dancing up some crazy stuff to Elvis remixes…
And Puck required a total of three band-aids for his fingers throughout the morning.
Gloria texted in just before one o’clock. Uncle Clause was in the hospital with a severe kidney infection after helping with the tornado clean-up in Oklahoma.
Mom called a little bit after three. Great Uncle Fred had passed away on Sunday. They had only just found out. Eight months after Grandpa, too, had passed from pneumonia…
“Ohhh…” Puck said when he heard.
Collette explained that Uncle Fred was alright now, and he was with Jesus.
“Yeah,” Puck nodded, splashing in the tub.
“You’ll like to meet Great-Great Uncle Fred in Heaven,” Collette told him.
“What will we do?” Puck asked.
“Well, what would you like to do with Uncle Fred?”
“Play with him… Wrestle,” Puck added with a grin. “But we might break somethin’… Does God have any vases in Heaven?”
You just didn’t always expect these things to happen.
When Collette finally switched things off after the 2-1 victory over the Reds in the bottom of the 10th that night, a little man with a patch of hair sticking straight up the top of his head, shuffled into their room…
“I’m ready to open my birthday cards now.”