Ragamuffins
Saturday, June 9, 2012
After OLeif had picked up Theodore from the airport at 11:45 Friday night, Puck roused himself somewhere around six on Saturday morning to join them for the same destination again. Theodore’s flight was headed for Columbus.
Upon return, OLeif napped.
Puck, meanwhile, was king-treating Sebastian. He cloaked him in old blankets and propped up his head with pillows…
“Sebastian looked a little lonely, so I gave him a little friend.”
Then another blanket over the head like a bonnet…
“Look at the dog!” [giggle, giggle] “He’s like Little Miss Riding Hood!”
Sebastian was in the middle of a yawn as another avalanche of blankets came down over his head. Puck adjusted them…
“Now don’t move again, Sebastian. Agh!”
He returned to the indistinguishable phrases of his Scrabble tiles on the carpet as Sebastian patiently remained obedient…
“D!… And R!… And E!… And O!… And O!…”
When he marched in from the deck later in the morning, he tried to be brave…
“The kitty bit me again,” he said with civility. “I hate her ways, Mama. I just hate her ways. Mama, I gave her a punishment. I think I said, ‘If you do that again, I will have to leave you in here for the rest of the day.’”
Meanwhile, OLeif broke sleep at ten while Collette performed minor surgery on her red dress for Sunday. Puck listened to a Mr. Rogers remix and demonstrations by an American professional artisanal pencil sharpener (yes, you could find a career doing anything) with OLeif, while arranging Jenga blocks into towers on the kitchen table.
“See what I done, Dad? Isn’t it great?’
“Sure is, bud.”
“Oh, but don’t congratulate yourself,” he chastised himself.
So… after Puck got blueberry-cucumbered-up, there was another double-header at the same park by noon.
As they approached, OLeif explained to Puck about the loudness of his voice once again admirably conquering Collette’s attempt at conversation…
“Is it because I was born a different way?” Puck asked.
Judging which diamond was the right one was easy, as usual…
“I see ragamuffins,” said OLeif, steering in their general direction.
In fact, they were so ragamuffinny, that they had to request two strangers playing catch to join the team, because they were short on players.
It didn’t take long for Puck to make friends with a nine year-old Billy…
“I have jumping in my blood,” Billy introduced himself. “What’s your name?”
“Let’s pretend we’re walking across lava,” Billy suggested, as they tore around the three-level tower jungle gym.
“Do you know any songs?” Billy asked Puck.
“I know ‘Jesus Loves Me’…”
“Do you know the band One Direction?”
“I don’t [fink] so… Once I sang in the shower.”
There was a juice stop.
And Target for another birthday party gift which Puck had missed for now-five year-old Jackie: a small pack of weird patterned/colored crayons, three-pack of compact flower-covered notebooks, a sheet of tiny shiny owl stickers, and a large box of Dots.
And two packs of cheap cookies for Sunday morning.
Mission accomplished.
Puck tried to beg some Runts after dinner.
He was allowed two.
“Could I have some more power, Mama?” he asked, holding up the bright orange box behind a dimpled grin.
“That’s not power, bud. That’s just crazy,” Collette replied, taking the box.
Puck didn’t seem to mind.
Rose hadn’t been feeling so good. When Collette checked on her sometime around four o’clock, the response came…
“Yeah. I ate some ice cream.”
Meanwhile, Collette had caught up on the quiet film of late 1800’s Hawai’ian history the previous day – “Princess Kaiulani”.
Mom and Dad had attended “Othello” in the park Friday night.
And Linnea was already returning sometime in the late afternoon from a week of taking down the town with Cherry.
Also… it looked like Elezar had gotten himself a girl down Sydney way.
OLeif had a youth meeting at seven while Collette caught the game and – inadvertently – the movie trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”.
Unbelievable.
But what was more believable was…
Kyle Lohse.
Brilliant.
Shut out the Indians – the first time it had happened to the Tribe all year.
And Beltran hit his 17th, still leading the NL.