Puck Makes a Goal

It shocked me at first so I didn’t respond as quickly as I usually do with spiders, because this time the spider outweighed any specimen I had ever seen inside our house by a good three pounds. Huge. Spider. He scattered so quickly into the corner of the bathroom that I actually jumped. I don’t remember the last time I jumped. But when he went on the attack towards my moccasin:

SMASH.

He was completely and 100% dead. I smeared his guts on the linoleum as a warning to other spiders. I think Jacob cleaned it up later. He’s not as vindictive against spiders as I am.

By about two o’clock in the afternoon, Yali was making a tiny pink flamingo and green lizard give a sleepy post-class Uncle Fran kisses while he tried to nap on the couch.

Three o’clock: the herd was released, hundreds of children in monogrammed polos. Yali flew into the outstretched arms of his big brother.

As the boys mingled together on the drive home, Puck had a comment to put to me before we even hit Page.

“Mom. I’m going to start working out.”

I figured this had something to do with the fact that he’d lost an arm-wrestling match to Snicky the previous week. Puck can’t stand to lose. But I asked anyway.

“Oh? What inspired this?”

“Snicky’s way stronger than me. I need to get bigger muscles.”

“And how are you planning to do that?”

“Oh, push ups. Pumpin’ irons.”

I ducked down a little to catch the smile so he couldn’t see me in the rearview mirror. “So … how much do you think you can lift?”

“Probably … close to … seventy. Or eighty. I can’t do much more than what I weigh myself.”

When we got home, Yali had sweat enough in the afternoon to feel the impulsive need to strip himself naked in the kitchen while Big Brother Puck clogged the toilet with half a roll of toilet paper.

CARDINALS:

6 games up on Pittsburgh: 86 and 46; 30 games remaining.