Lila's Shoes

Carrie had met with an old friend, Thursday night. Back from Croatia to finish his Masters, it was Thor. He even remembered to ask after the family, including OLeif and Puck. He hadn’t seem to change at all.
Meanwhile, Joe was juggling water balloons in the living room for Puck, which Puck thought was hilarious. This had followed the bubble blowing. Puck then found a series of strings of beads in the toy drawer and began to try to pull them apart.
“Whet go!” he cried, tugging mercilessly at them. “Whet go!”
After Collette had helped him to detangle the strands, he was encouraged to reply with a happy “dank-coom”, his signature “thank you”.
It was another cold day. So cold. Collette shivered even indoors. Carrie was so cold that she was tempted to swipe Linnea’s snug black quilted knee-length coat to ward against bitter temperatures.
Rose returned later from work after having made her constitutional visit to World Market, this time for exotic jewelry and a red, orange, and pink print-paneled hanging Moroccan lamp, and a small glass bottle of sparkling apple cider.
Puck left the house that day, clomping to the car in his Lila’s shiny black Sunday shoes. He had taken a fancy to wearing them, to be like Lila, and held her hand on the walk down the driveway.
And Mom packed for Atlanta.

“Mother had always been just as she was, a pillar of strength, a fount of wisdom, the one person who knew the answers to everything.”
— of Ellen O’Hara (Gone with the Wind)