Pals & Their Doings
Friday, October 29, 2007
A day had passed, and Friday came warm and summer-like. A headache pressed upon Collette a spell as she prepared to begin a seven hour study session of abnormal psychology, for an exam would follow the next day.
The apartment was quiet and cool. Crusty leaves and brown bean pod branches scraped the windowpane of her bedroom. Several concerns fluttered through her mind as the sun hung faintly outside, washing the earth in subterranean light. It was an afternoon of mystery, and she would have rather spent it out of doors if it hadn’t been for her headache. She knew that her family would be at home that night carving pumpkins perhaps, while watching “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” as a tradition in late October.
Meanwhile, she would rest her eyes and head and focus on her obligations of the day, one piece at a time, an invaluable and simple skill taught her by OLeif. It seemed to be the brief manual for enjoying life and forgetting to worry. She knew there was a greater reason behind it all, but the philosophy had become amazingly useful in helping through the busy and potentially stressful times of life – just taking one piece at a time, dealing with each thing as it came.
Collette drew into the living room as she recollected certain thoughts. Wednesday night after OLeif had picked her up from choir practice in the basement of the church office, they had done a little bit of whirlwind shopping. She had seen it the night before and had it set in her mind to get it for OLeif’s mom, Denae. A chunky stitched bing-cherry red sweater with large buttons up the front and pockets on the side – perfect for the winter ahead.
November was a large birthday month, and now that she had Diana English’s and Carrie-Bri’s gifts, she was only missing Mom’s. Of course, seeing as it was Carrie-Bri’s golden birthday, her 18th birthday on the 18th of November, Collette would add eighteen brightly frosted cupcakes to the gift count.
Collette’s mind flashed to another subject – a film she stole a peak at the previous afternoon as she recovered from her first headache. It was “Monsoon Wedding”, taking place in Delhi, India. The different nature of its filming and bright colors, singing, and culture, grabbed her attention. She recalled various sari-work that she had seen and sparkling bangles of reds, green, blue, and purples, and yellows, orange… all colors. The sacrifices of rice and tropic flowers, idols and goddesses, and ceremonies… she wondered how they could live in such a fashion, honoring stone gods. How odd it would be to live in such a place. Her mind then wandered as the phone began to ring suddenly.
“Hello?”
“Collette?”
“Hey. Diana.”
“Collette, I’m so excited; I just got accepted to Wheaton – I can’t believe it!” Diana’s voice crackled through the line, as she yelled out the good news.
Collette smiled at this announcement. “Diana, that’s awesome; that’s just great.”
“I know; I got the call at school this morning from the lady who’s been helping me out from the beginning, like from two years ago. I’ve been telling everyone; I’m so excited. I’m just so excited. And I talked to my teacher at school today, and he said he didn’t blame me for leaving. I mean, they like heard rumors from the students, because you know I’ve been telling like everyone for the past three semesters,” she giggled a little. “And it’s all OK. And I’ll find out about tuition soon. They’re gonna see like how much scholarship money they can get for me.”
“Wow. So how much scholarship do you think you’ll need?”
“Like eight thousand probably, but see, when I set up my plan, I didn’t think I’d be working. But I’m going to now, like just a little at least, and then I’ll probably get some grants too.”
“OK, so that’s good. Wow – I can’t believe it.”
“I know. I can’t believe I’m actually going after all this time.”
They talked a little longer together. Collette was very happy for her friend. Diana was sitting high on cloud nine. It was one of her dreams coming true.
And the plan was set to meet the following evening after Diana returned from banging out some wedding tunes at a reception at The Columns Banquet Center. Then they’d go off and find some fun, perhaps at a coffee house or the movies.
Upon returning to the kitchen to replace the phone, Collette saw the distant clouds approach and slipped on her shoes to walk over to the mailbox. She slung her chain of keys around her hand as she crossed the way, thinking on the blue of the sky and the mellow heat of the autumn afternoon, and of her friend and sister leaving for college. Carrie-Bri would decide soon where she would go. And in a year, perhaps, one would be in Chicago studying music at the conservatory, and the other might be in New Mexico studying the protective services. She would miss them very much, but she knew they would be living their dreams and loving it, so she could let them go.
The mail box brought a package, a pair of shoes – dark banana yellow suede Mary Janes w/ black rubber soles. Very trendy, she thought to herself as she slid them on and watched them walk a bit, under her jeans. Puerto Rican, perhaps – she had seen two teenage girls in San Juan with similar footwear, one with orange Mary Janes, and another in, was it yellow too? She had forgotten. One of the girls had dark hair pulled back tightly in a loose roll, wearing jeans, a light shirt, and a book bag perhaps, talking on her cell phone in Spanish, perhaps to a wealthy aunt visiting from the States. And she would bring presents, like chocolates or evening bags for the opera, or a pair of earrings from Nordstroms. Or maybe she was off, along with her sister, to visit a friend in Lisbon, or to take a school trip to Beijing or Moscow…
Coming back to herself, she tapped her heels together and with one more look at their goldenness, unsnapped them both and set them aside for wearing later. Meanwhile, she learned via another phone call, of Carrie-Bri’s doings for the evening.
“Hey, I ran into Oreo at Borders today. And he got his braces off.”
“Hey, no kidding? How’s he doing?”
“Good, actually. He’s going to meet us at CuppaJo tonight. Elizabeth’s coming, and Thor, Art, and Lucia. It should be an interesting combination. And guess what? He’s burned all his rap CDs and he’s in the rodeo!…”
Oreo French was a friend from nearly two years ago, who had once escorted Carrie-Bri to the prom and purchased red roses for her on two occasions. He was known to often label himself “the King of Lithuania”. His father worked with gadgets – a professional inventor.
Elizabeth, Carrie-Bri’s co-worker at The Columns Banquet Center, was a nineteen year old freshman at the community college, an aspiring art teacher, and very close to being a kindred spirit of Carrie’s. Thor, a Croatian student at Lindenwood University, was also a friend and co-worker, an enthusiastic foreigner, and quite disappointed with the recent loss of the World Series by his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Art, (Thor’s Bosnian roommate), was apparently a phenomenal artist (thus his nickname), capable of painting still-life that was out of this world. And (St.) Lucia, Carrie’s and Collette’s cousin, a Jesus-freak, synchronized swimmer, who would also graduate in the spring, would complete the six-some that evening at the coffee house…