Pencils & Subs

A slow morning in the neighborhood. Rain. Oxbear in South City for the usual dose of big breakfast and big lifting. I can usually judge by the quality of the bruises on his arms, how successful the outing has been.

Puck knew it when he saw it in the Schunuck’s florist department. Between all the tables of pink and blue hydrangeas and roses, he lifted a tin of bold yellow mums from the shelf.

“This one’s for Nana. She will like it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to look at the pink ones? She might like pink, too.”

“No. Nana likes yellow better. She has all yellow flowers in her front yard. This is the one we should get.”

About ten minutes later, he held up the pot of blooms to Gloria. “Not my idea!”

Sometimes that kid is painfully honest. Even if it wasn’t his idea, the color was. I guess that still counts.

There was also a box of Prismacolor pencils, which Oxbear began to sharpen into points while Puck took a dose of Minecraft for the mid-afternoon and the rain continued to fall.

“Dad! This is the answer to our prayers! Give Puck Silverspoon … PIG SPAWNER!!!!”

It’s really like their own language.

After awhile, Puck joined the drawing party. He and Oxbear collaborated on a human-faced bat while Puck shoved down a sleeve of whole grain crackers for second lunch. Later, Gloria added it to the front of the fridge, passing it off as her Mother’s Day card.

A few hours later in the middle of a tight Cardinals loss in Pittsburgh, we drove back west for Penn Station subs, sodas/juice from QT, and home. Early Mother’s Day dinner with fat chocolate chip cookies on the side in a cold basement, just me and the boys and the game. Sometimes a good chocolate chip cookie can help make up for losses in baseball.

Within reason.

But it has to be soft-baked to count.