Monks, Loons, & a Surprise

Ah… The ways of the good old days. Perhaps they hadn’t been so good, actually. She didn’t know. But it was the thought of it. She woke up thinking ever so briefly about them. Well, not her good old days. Good old days in general. For example, she was thinking in particular about the third brother of OLeif’s head bosses (owners of NAWS) who was expecting his Ukrainian mail-order bride in the States, any day – how old-fashioned was that? Very interesting at the same time though. But the thought left as soon as it came and she went on with the day.

Monday night was spent at the Silverspoon’s, where spaghetti and salad was served over the discussion of a radio program which Denae had been listening to in the car that afternoon – on Franciscan monks.

“And the the radio host asked the lady who was being interviewed, ‘So is it really necessary to have so many monks secluded? Wouldn’t it be better to have them go out and help people in the third world countries or something?’ And the woman says, ‘Do you remember that movie about the loons?'” Denae paused to laugh. “‘I see it like the loons. You don’t need many loons, but you need some of them…'”

“What in the world, does this have to do, with monks?” OLeif waved his hand and pushed up his glasses.

“Well she was trying to draw a parallel,” Denae was still laughing. “It was just that she started off by saying, ‘Do you remember the movie with the loons?’ It was so funny!”

Hearing of the monks, however, did bring Collette back nearly two years to Maine. The monastery by the sea… How quiet it had been there. A hand-laid rock wall circled the perimeter, surrounded by woods and paths around an open field. A guest house lay to the left at the entrance, and the monastery itself lay further to the right next to a shrine. Inside was the chapel where several of the brothers would be administered into the order that very night. And from down the hall, all that could be heard was the rattling of dishes in the kitchen. The winding paths back through the forest passed near a bay where ivy grew and purple flowers. Collette could have stayed there longer. It was so peaceful and so very very quiet.

And back at the Silverspoon’s there was an episode of Hogan’s Heroes after dinner and after Denae had drawn up a story-board for a video wedding card which they would send to Colorado for Penelope and Snickerdoodle’s private wedding, April 8th. There were also rice crispy treats to pass around. Meanwhile, Theodore teased Sebastian with a laser pointer on the floor. Sebastian would lick his chops and then proceed to randomly smash his nose into the carpet whenever he thought it advisable to lunge for the dancing red dot.

Rose also called during dinner to quickly ask OLeif’s advice for the warranty on her camera, as she was calling from the store to purchase it. She was very excited.

In Tuesday’s news, a helicopter had landed on the summit of Mt. Everest. Another thing ruined… Where was the thrill and adventure and danger of reaching the top now, if one could take a fifteen minute ride and land on top of the world?

Thinking of the bits of glass in the grass which must have fallen from the strand of bulbs in the backyard Sunday night, Collette wondered – what happened to the yards of those who had come through tornado devastation? Would their children ever be able to run around barefooted again? To think of all the bits of glass, plastic, metal, and fiberglass embedded in the ground, which would likely remain there for years and years. Perhaps it was just never a good idea to run around barefooted anyway. Collette had never really done so, but the kids had always loved doing it, despite the fact that Dad frowned upon it.

“They’ll step on a piece of glass and cut their foot open,” Dad had always said whenever he had seen one of them run past a window, barefooted.

Meanwhile, Carrie had just returned from an afternoon with Paige Popp, who had gone to get her belly-button pierced, and to Lion’s Choice, and for a spring-loaded knife for Carrie and two bandannas (one black and one Ernest Blue) at Uncle Sam’s. Carrie had also taken her seventh piercing, a second hole in her right ear.

Later in the afternoon, Mom received a call from Lace.

“What’s going on?” She asked. “…Oh!” And she exited while continuing to listen, back to her room.

Frances and Collette, who were both in the kitchen listening, looked at each other, wondering.

“What do you think?” Collette asked Frances.

“I think Mrs. Hobcoggin is going to have another baby,” Frances said confidently.

Collette thought not. But truth be told – Frances was right. She was due in September, and everyone was very excited. It would be the first time in a long while that there had been a little baby in the circle, not since baby Lonnie, and that had been five years before since he was tiny.

Irish for the week – “The Briar and the Rose”

“I fell asleep down by a stream
And there I had the strangest dream.
For down by Brennan’s Glenn there grows
A briar and a rose.

“There’s a tree in the forest and I don’t know why
I built a nest out of your hair.
And climbing up into the air,
A briar and a rose.

“Well I don’t know how long it’s been
But I was born in Brennan’s Glenn.
And near the end of spring there grows
A briar and a rose.”

I picked a rose one early morn.
I pricked my finger on a thorn.
They’d grown so close their winding wove
The briar and the rose.

“I tried to tear them both apart
I felt a bullet in my heart.
And all dressed up in spring’s new clothes
The briar and the rose.

“And when I’m buried and in my grave
Tell me so I will know
Your tears may fall to make love grow
The briar and the rose.”