Pulled Teeth, Striped Hair, Busted Cars
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Back on the ranch Monday afternoon, with all the doors and windows open to the cool of the September day, Carrie had left for another piano lesson and work at Old Hickory, Joe was off to the bike shop to get his tire repaired and to return later for a session of Calculus with Dad, Rose was under the weather (although more than ready to go out with Dad for another driving lesson), and Linnea was brushing Liberty-Belle’s hair in preparation to visit the American Girls’ Place in Chicago for a day with Mom in December. She had been greatly inspired to the visit after reading the Molly books with Collette over the past two weeks. And Frances had just pulled a tooth out of his mouth.
The demise of Frances’ tooth had left behind carnage.
“Frances,” Collette said to him, “you left a blood flood in the bathroom sink.”
“I know,” Frances giggled, and promptly forgot to clean up the mess, becoming distracted with a pile of cars on the dining room table.
Earlier in the day, Carrie had come out to the living room displaying the roots of her hair to anyone available to look.
“Look at this,” she pulled her hair taught. “I have three colors. Look at those roots!”
And, indeed, once again, Carrie’s hair had gone wild – two different colored stripes at the roots before hitting the actual reddish-blond of the rest of her hair.
“Oh,” Carrie groaned bending over the kitchen sink to wash her hair. “Maybe I should just bleach it again.”
And aside from Joe’s remote control car shorting out (which left a terrific electrical smell in the garage for some time), the rest of the day went well enough. Rose was more than happy to avoid a last session of tutoring in the afternoon (claiming that she did not feel well). And Mom prepared cheese ravioli for dinner in the quiet cool of the evening.
Later, for OLeif’s and Collette’s dinner, there was a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. And OLeif worked till midnight on the photo slide-show for Wednesday night’s mission trip presentation.
In other news, it was learned the evening before that Lorenzo-Gwanael and his wife were expecting their first child in the spring. Collette could not quite imagine Lorenzo as a dad, but stranger things had happened. He was 21.
Tuesday morning OLeif woke up to meet Ben-Hur and Magnus at the church office for Hebrews, minus the cinnamon rolls or pancakes. And Collette prepared salami and cheddar for her lunch at yet another Tuesday at the church office. She only hoped that on Wednesday Rose would feel up for cleaning the years of grime off of the new copier Oholibamah had dropped off late Friday afternoon. Rose, like Joe, had a knack for getting things clean down to the cracks.
Collette heard from Carrie that Tuesday night was set aside for a bit of a MUSE party with Elizabeth, Lucia, and Queens. They were to listen to the music while making t-shirts and eating healthy organic food. Collette wondered if it was rather similar to the days when the Englishs and Snicketts would celebrate Mozart’s birthday on a Friday with a chocolate cake. Although it didn’t sound as though the girls were going to be having anything connected with chocolate.
At the office that morning, the air was cold and hinted of cedar. Autumn was on the rise, the season of jack ‘o lanterns, Carrie’s spiced cider, and Mom’s candy corn and peanut mix always set out in a dish on the kitchen table. A cool gray autumn front had already drifted across the western sky.
The day passed in its steady coolness and it was home to red beans and rice with garlic toast for dinner.