Monday's Birthday

Thursday, February 24, 2005

It was a fairy snow that morning, the night of the full moon. Each tree was crowned queen and the air was full of a moorish mist and branches of icy white.

Diana had written again the night before, sending a letter to Collette and Diana’s parents. She also insisted in the letter that Joel would be a good name for the baby. And she also had news that a second guy had asked her out, twice in the same day, who she had refused both times, naturally. But there was other interesting news she had to share:

“We have Messiah rehearsals every night this week. It is going to be an amazing production — we have a 210 voice choir behind us and the conductor (John Nelson — a Wheaton alum), a cello, and bass player were flown in from Paris. Here’s a really cool thing — a lady in the community specializes in making banners and made two beautiful banners with verses from the Messiah. All of us who participate in the performances get to sign our names on them, and then they are going to two churches: one is in Jerusalem and one is in Baghdad. They are supposed to remind the churches there of the good will and prayers between them and US churches.”

Collette’s hands were raw, red, and quite burned by the time her scarlet top was dyed that evening. The day had gone quickly as usual, and this time Mom and Carrie-Bri had picked her up after work for a quick round to the boutiques. Finally, Plato’s Closet had what Carrie was looking for. Collette found it tucked in a top rack – a lacy silk top piece of black and red with a corset tied up the whole front, and from Forever 21 – one of Carrie’s favorites.

Once her hands had cooled, Collette commenced to study the material for the following week’s SDLC session.