Long Red Pony-Tailed Boys & Crumbling Lampshades

Friday, December 16, 2005

(8:33am) Collette read a good passage in the Matthew Henry Commentary that morning, coming from Genesis:

“Man is a little world, consisting of heaven and earth, soul and body… The matter was despicable. He was made of the dust of the ground, a very unlikely thing to make a man of… He was made of the dust, the small dust… He was not made of gold-dust, powder of pearl, or diamond dust, but common dust, dust of the ground.”

Thursday evening had been spent for an hour at Schroeder Boogey’s house with his family, including his darling wife, Sally, who must have been under five feet tall, and precious as a button – probably the best profile Collette had ever seen on a woman. Including those present were their two young boys Cory and Caleb, Schroeder’s sister, Kelly, (whose two front teeth were slightly parted, like Molly’s) and her three sons: Joseph (who had long red hair), Seth, and Jordan, and Schroeder’s brother Billy, his girlfriend Julia, and their son, Boice. They seemed all healthily comfortable with one another, easily able to handle each other’s kids as their own. The shoot went well, and Collette enjoyed looking around the top floor while OLeif fixed the lens and the lighting. Sally seemed to be very much in to the 80’s sense of decorating, including various pictures on the walls in thin Wal-Mart poster frames of things such as aerial views of pianos with a sprawling bunch of white lilies atop one of the baby grands. And one wall was painted pale purple, and beneath it the latter half of the wall was a triangle of mottled white and purple. Sally even wore the usual long red acrylic nails and the bangs (though not as poofed as in her wedding picture which hung on the wall behind the kitchen pantry). It was interesting to see how people lived.

That evening would be spent with the high school youth over goodies, caroling, and a white elephant gift exchange. Mom also had plans to start a bonfire with hot dogs (the usual Snicketts’ fair, out of which Judah Rye always got a good kick).

There was a picture waiting to be hung in the upstairs church bathroom entitled – “Sunday Morning in Sleepy Hollow.” Collette had come to like it; a group of Puritans (or Colonials, more like), headed towards church, just around a bend in the corner where the red bell tower peaked over the hill (although red was a highly unlikely color for a Colonial church steeple). A youngster in breeches in a tri-cornered hat over his long red ponytail, held his grandfather’s hand as they walked along the path. And his sister trailed further behind smelling a bunch of golden posies. Collette still had a hankering every once in awhile to live in those old days, to serve God in a fresh land, a new world. But then again, every generation battled with the same sins. That never changed.

Collette’s hands had become a rather raw red lately from washing her hands more than the normal amount of times. Curly Hobcoggin, Sr. had been explaining to Mom at the choir concert, that washing one’s hands should be conducted long enough at one sitting, to sing through the “ABC’s.” Collette had tried it, and suffered from dry knuckles in return, though good clean knuckles to be sure.

Towards noon, Collette received a call from Diana, who did not seem to be entirely enthusiastic about discussing the latest happenings of the semester. But she would tell all, nevertheless. Collette knew this well. Diana had plans to drop by the house and spend some time at the youth Christmas party, after her job at Columns. She had just finished a week of finals, got back to St. Louis at midnight the night before, and was already back at work.

And in other thrilling news of the day, the inside of the lamp shade on Collette’s desk had bit the dust. The ancient cloth had come apart in shreds overnight several weeks earlier. And as Collette attempted to tape the flaps back inside with scotch tape, the cloth tore off in her hands and crumbled into white dust. She wondered if old lamp shades had ever been made of asbestos. She didn’t know what asbestos looked like, but the pile in her hand looked like what she imagined asbestos to look like. In the afternoon, Jimmy came in wearing an eye-popping cheery red collared shirt. Later he walked by wearing a white Christmas sweater. He had a habit of changing clothes two or three times a day while in the office. Ivy liked to joke with him about it. Judah walked in later on in his little knit cap and a heavy case. After four, he opened it and took out his accordion. Strains of fisherman-like Christmas carols drifted back from his office. The adventures of a day.

By two, Collette had a headache and felt very uninspired.