Play Sweetly the Mandolin Over the Grave

Saturday, September 9, 2006

And so the bulletins were eventually folded Friday night with Linnea helping to staple and stuff. Following that, Frances and Linnea set up their pillows and blankets in the living room, as they did every Friday night, for a viewing of Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen. Collette fell asleep somewhere between the time that Indy joined the French army and when he secretly followed a young German scientist to a Nazi base.

Saturday afternoon, OLeif and Collette had to miss Travis’ graduation/going-away party… partly because Collette had only heard about it the day before, partly because she had to clean the apartment and pack for them to leave for Ivy’s the next day, partly because OLeif had to fix computers at Stallone’s, and partly because she had to prepare a potato casserole to bring to the Saint’s for dinner that night for six other couples… She did regret not being able to say goodbye to the dude. She wondered when they would see him again. Dad was suspicious that he would be sent to Iraq, but Mom said they had already told him that he wouldn’t be going there. According to the army, they “need(ed) his brains back here”. Collette wished him well, and hoped that not too many Christmases would pass before they would see him again. He had never missed a family Christmas in all his twenty years, and Christmas that year would be at his folks’ house, in New Town again.

Meanwhile, the top of OLeif’s mandolin, an eighteenth birthday gift from his dad, snapped off for no apparent reason whatsoever. There was a brief pop and the deed was done. OLeif was not pleased, needless to say. So instead of playing, he cleaned out his side of the closet, swept out the apartment, took out several piles of trash, and simplified his stash of electronics.

Dinner was outdoors at the Saint’s that evening with some barbecued chicken and dishes brought by the other couples – the Spinnings, the Ryes, the Stumples, and the Sunrocks. And the four little girls played in the yard with Donald and the three babysitters, running through the freshly cut dried grass and picking green berries off a bush climbing the back fence. OLeif and Collette sat with Julie-Ann and Barney Stumples during dinner on the patio while Loraine poured Barney three glasses of white wine, despite his laughing protests. And Barney and OLeif discussed seminary and dead languages. After brownies for dessert, the Spinnings left early with Carnelian and Juniper, while Julie-Ann broke out a paper-wheel version of Catchphrase. The evening ended after the male team creamed the female team two to three.