My Quote Book
Sometime that week, I think it was Tuesday night, Puck consumed almost an entire jumbo pack of orange Tic-Tacs. In fact, I think he had left only one. The next morning…
“Where is the Tic-Tac, Mom? I can cut it in half so we all can have one.”
He said this, chomping a slice of yellow potato bread. I had other thoughts for him though…
“So, Puck, what part do you think you’ll have in the Christmas play?”
“I don’t want to be the dad.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to take care of all that baby stuff. I want to be the director. Heh. Heh.”
Turns out he was a wise man – one of five – and not too happy with the casting.
“Puck, do you know where the book Cat Secrets is? We need to turn it into the library. It’s on reserve.”
The order of week day mornings, often. Puck ran off to his room, yelling a proclamation behind him…
“WE HAVE TO FIND CAT SECRETS BEFORE THEY KICK US OUT ONTO THE STREETS!”
It wasn’t more than ten minutes later and I had fastened him into the kitchen for math, almost forgetting the addition flashcards.
“Maybe we’ll do flashcards after your math book from now on,” I speculated to myself.
Puck stared up at me cross-legged in his school chair, pencil poised over notebook, “I don’t like the sound of that gleam in your eyes.”
When all work was done for the morning, he grabbed Crackers around her silky-coat middle…
“You are cute. You look like a pear that hasn’t been eaten yet.”
And a note about Pluto…
“Well, I don’t care if scientists fink it’s a planet or not, because I still fink it’s a planet.”
A one o’clock meeting south of I-44. Puck played Legos and rocks with an older pal while my book was unraveled for further analysis.
Schnuck’s on the way home: kale and green beans for Bær, and 200 square feet of aluminum foil for Puck to build his own giant tin foil ball. On our walk into the store…
“It’s a windy day!” Puck declared. “I’m glad I’m not a leaf, else or I’d hit my head on the sidewalk.”
“CAAAALVIN!… CAAAALVIN!”
That was Puck’s cue. Out the door without coat, hat, gloves, to friends. The play’s the thing.