Pack Rats
At about eight o’clock that morning before church, I heard some suspicious wrinkling in the kitchen. When I walked in, Yali had pulled a chair to the counter, diving into a leftover bag of movie night Cheetos. Guilt washed over his face as he held out the last Cheeto to me with one little brown hand. I let him eat it anyway; bad mama.
Then I checked in with Puck, who was preparing to meet with the elders for church membership that morning.
“So,” I asked him, “what if the elders ask you today, ‘Do you deserve to go to Heaven, Puck?’ What will you say?”
“I will say, ‘No.’”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone is bad.”
For an Orthodox Presbyterian panel, I figured he’d pass.
After church, it was back to work. Good thing we don’t live in the good old Puritan days, I guess. Because we had to wrap up the basement back at the Big House. Trying to catch the Cards-Pirates game while we bagged up hundreds of books for the Vietnam Vets.
As a cold loss in Pittsburgh sagged to a close on the television, Carrie-Bri stomped up the stairs, flabbergasted. “These kids want to keep everything! The boys want to save electrical outlets from the 80s! Elmer’s down there trying to hold onto all of Dr. Benton’s old sermons on cassette tape!”
The next generation of pack rats.
About the time Elmer found Uncle Clarence’s old trumpet and began squawking out an almost unrecognizable version of “Old Man River” – a personal favorite of both Rose’s and mine (maybe a little more William Warfield, a little less rusty brass instrument) – things were about finished.
Until Elmer found the stack of old VHS tapes and decided to fix them up good.
“Does anyone have a band-aid?” he asked, emerging from the staircase.
Turns out “Veggie Tales” had drawn the short straw. Elmer punched through it Taekwondo style. No more Larry the Cucumber.
As everyone parted ways for the evening, Elmer and Francis gripped each other’s arms as usual, gladiator style. “Strength and honor,” they told each other.
So with a first loss in the baseball books, I hit the grocery store to restock the house for the week – these three boys eat one fridge-ful in a wink, and rejoined them back home. They had spent their own adventure at the park, followed by Gloria washing muddy creek water out of all their clothes, and a big bubble bath.