People

Sunday, May 8, 2005

Mother’s Day – another one had come ’round. And there were roses to be given out after services. For lunch they would be over at the Silverspoon’s. Later in the afternoon, provided there were no thunderstorms, they were to take Grandma Snicketts out to Babler Park for a dinner of fried chicken. Grandma Combs was still in Minnesota for Lucia’s swim meet.

Meanwhile, Diana had come home. It was good to see her again, just to have her around. Those mischievous eyes and party spirit were a welcome return. With Carrie and Diana together, no gathering was dull. And then there was Mercy and Mrs. Pretzel, who looked very well. Mercy seemed happy, content. It was good to talk with her again. It had been so long since Collette had talked with any of her old friends. And Catalina was there. She had brought her pictures from Africa – her three month stay on medical internship. The photos were very beautiful – of Kenya and Somalia – the mountains, animal-life, tea fields, poinsettia trees… very nice.

Carrie was once again not happy with work, however. There was very disappointing news concerning Slava. And one of the American girls had been taken to the ER that Friday evening. She was panicking – her heart was racing. Carrie and the others girls tried to calm her down; Carrie encouraged her to blow on her thumb and other things that Francis had to do when his heart trouble was discovered. But apparently, she wouldn’t calm down, and so one of the girls drove her in. So she was set up for a good deal of blood-work, chest x-rays, and all sorts of other things. It was a shame.

Spurgeon West now had a serious girlfriend. It came as quite a surprise to Mercy in particular, who knew the girl he was dating. Collette did not recognize even the name of the girl, but found it rather comical to picture Spurgeon with a girlfriend, spending hours on the phone with her. Spurgeon was a friendly fellow, constantly spouting theology and philosophy. It was just a little difficult picturing him with a girlfriend. But he would already be twenty in July, so it wasn’t exactly too early.

Collette sat back and wondered how quickly everyone had grown and changed. It was all too fast.