Out for the Hike

Friday, November 16, 2007

Frances had found his potassium nitrate. It had come in the form of a large carton of stump remover at a gardening shop in Kirkwood. He had jumped for joy. Upon arriving at the house that morning, however, Collette was told by him, disappointedly, that he was not allowed to build his grenades until Dad was home to supervise.

And, as was not uncommon, Frances was trying to remove all thoughts of army, grenades, tanks, guns, etc. from his mind in order to concentrate on his schoolwork.

“Frances, go find a pencil,” Mom ordered, who was not in the mood for monkey business that morning.

Some time later, Frances wandered back into the kitchen with a pencil.

“Frances, what took you so long?”

Frances looked a little dazed. Mom continued:

“I could have chopped down a tree, carved out a pencil, and put in the graphite in the time it took you to find your pencil.”

Frances giggled and took his seat at the counter for his spelling test.

While Frances was occupied with his other studies, Puck scooted himself around the floor with his chubby hands. While he enjoyed his morning entertaining himself in this way, Collette and Carrie-Bri ran a few errands which included looking for special hiking shoes for the upcoming trip to the Middle East. Though unsuccessful, they did manage to bring back lunch of chicken fingers and garlic bread.

Upon returning, lunch was prepared. Rose, who had been studying abnormal psychology like a mad woman, ate all but the crusts of her bread as usual.

“Trooper! Surprise!”

A fistful of crusts flew through the air into the dog’s unsuspecting face. They were soon gobbled to nothing.

Collette had Frances bring out the dreaded algebra while Mom, Carrie, and Rose got ready for a hike. Joy and Juliet Wallace were due over at the house by 1:30 to hike with them at a place of Carrie’s choosing. But first, there was the problem of settling Mom’s wardrobe.

“Aren’t you going to get ready to go, Mom?” Carrie asked.

“I am ready.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?”

“It looks like you’re ready to go to a tea party. Those earrings have to go. Really, Mom, a turtleneck sweater?”

“It keeps me warm,” Mom insisted.

“No, Mom. You can’t wear that on a hike. I’ll find you something else.”

After Mom had switched out the turtleneck sweater for a camouflage top of Carrie’s and Joe’s hoodie, and Carrie had filled up the platypus, they were ready to go.

Meanwhile, Frances had plans for a hike of his own. He and Dad would join the Scouts that night on a midnight hike.