Manger Ducks & Jelly Rings

Friday, January 21, 2005

And naturally, there were all the little oddities of the day such as a good hour spent on designing, printing, and slicing Sinai’s new business cards and zooming around the little M’nM wind-up toy on Ivy’s desk. There were more of the individually wrapped pretzels from Pennsylvania – the oldest pretzel factory in the United States.

Collette remembered to bring the thick plastic jelly ring from the new grape jelly she had bought at the grocery store the week before. She had brought it Wednesday and Ivy was pleased to announce that Max and Joy were both pleased with what “Auntie Collette” had brought them. As soon as Max had seen her take it from her purse, he had burst across the living room talking loudly in excitement (as Snugs and Pumpkin often did while watching birds through the glass on the patio door). It was fun to hear of the latest shenanigans from the kitties. Of course, as usual, Judah and Joe, and now Sinai, would roll their eyes and just chuckle to themselves, shaking their heads.

While scanning the bulletins for errors, Collette had come across the verse:

“My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.”

She had heard it many times before, but for the first time “secret place” jumped at her from among the other words. She wondered if it might simply be a figurative metaphor. Yet somehow, secret place, seemed much more exciting and mysterious. Heaven, perhaps… but she could never have been there before. Perhaps it was speaking only of the soul. It was interesting to imagine such things.

Meanwhile, from Sinai’s office, she heard a conversation between himself, Judah, and Ivy, about his family ancestry. She grabbed bits and pieces…

“… can trace my lineage back to Adam and Eve… middle name is Hurlburt. Everyone laughs at it. …Wales… …royal houses of Europe… Julius Caesar… …King Hurlburt… …kept detailed records… …through Constantine… …Shem to Noah, thus Adam and Eve… …Swedish ancestry…”

How fascinating, she thought to herself, as she sorted papers. To think – she might only be able to trace her own history back to the Prussians coming over in the eighteen hundreds. And yet – there was that illusive black pirate, buried in the graveyard. Somewhere, there must be more extensive family records hidden.

At the house, over chicken salad or tuna for dinner (both of which Collette managed not to eat), Carrie-Bri was obviously becoming bored. Dad seemed slightly grumpy, and Mom was ready to take Francis to Scouts. Joe had already left a bit ago for his own. Carrie-Bri sat putting “embarrassed” tint with cranberry pulp on the clothing catalog models’ faces. And Dad was in a bit of an uproar over Linnea giving trouble taking her medicine.

“Mom, don’t leave the Big Bad Dad with us,” Carrie-Bri begged, walking into the kitchen where all the activity was taking place. “Take it with you. A little storm cloud follows Dad wherever he goes.” She wriggled her hands above his head to imitate rain falling. “Zting a ting a sing.”

“I’ll storm cloud you,” Dad warned her, his smile lines returning, as Carrie-Bri dashed out of range.

“No you won’t, ’cause I’m too fast,” she exclaimed, skipping out of the kitchen.

She immediately returned to whine, “Mom, I’m so bored I could kill myself.”

Mom laughed at her woeful expression. “Why don’t you go outside and climb a tree.”

“I’ve already been outside today. Look at the mud between my toes,” she sat on the counter stool and pointed to her bare feet. “See there. It’s all dried.”

Meanwhile, Francis had proudly put on display his newly created manger scene of creek-stone colored play dough ducks – very original and creative. Collette looked them over with a smile at their funny faces, while she absently wrote “EAT ME!!!” on all the oranges and bananas in the fruit bowl on the kitchen table.

But soon OLeif came to pick her up, for there was some sort of jambalaya soup to put on for his dinner. A hoot owl called to her as she walked out the front door. And as they sped off down the road, they laughed as Linnea was bouncing up and down in the window, waving.

But that morning Diana had written again with good news still, although Velvet would not be coming that weekend to visit her after all, because of the forecast for snow.

The good news was, that Collette could finally tell everyone (as she had found out two days earlier, but wasn’t allowed to say anything at the time), that Velvet was now “engaged to be engaged” (so to speak – something their world occasionally called “courting”) to Alfonso Candles, a nice young guy from Carrie’s quizzing days. Collette thought that he might be younger than Velvet by a bit, but she wasn’t quite sure, and decided to ask Diana. Diana was genuinely happy for her and Collette was pleased to hear it. Diana, like Carrie-Bri, had been pretty bummed the past two years as they slowly watched most of their friends pair off and become engaged. Now there was a slew scheduled to be married. Collette understood their occasional frustration.

Diana went on to talk a bit more about the school, saying:

“Today was the first day that I felt on top of things and settled into my new schedule. I’m meeting great people and my profs are so amazing! Today, one of them announced nonchalantly that she was being interviewed by the New York Times about the presidential inauguration!”

Collette set aside two lonely dollar bills on the desk. Today – cold, dark, and windy – would be a lovely morning to bite into a warm donut with chocolate on top. And then she would come up with how to spend the rest of her day.

Once dropped off from work, OLeif would be at a concert at Sheldon Hall with Curly and his friend, Wallace (or Wally). So that left a good bit for herself, mostly to study, she concluded.