Record Breaker
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Mrs. Pretzel had been gone, now, for two years, to the day.
But it was also Bing’s 21st birthday. Collette remembered the time when Carrie had written Bing a poem and gave him a bag of Reeses peanut butter cups for his birthday. Maybe it had been for his 15th. He was her oldest friend.
Puck was being chubby.
The afternoon was quiet and hot.
Puck fell asleep in his swing, holding his little stuffed bunny by its arm. Later, he enjoyed a few episodes of “I Love Lucy”, frowning in concentration. Later still, he became fascinated with Collette’s mirror and smiled big at both of their reflections.
He had also found OLeif and Collette whenever he rode in the car, and liked to turn around and get Collette’s attention with his big gray eyes.
“Hi,” he said one day.
Pure coincidence.
Outside, the cicadas buzzed incessantly.
Seeing as the afternoon temperatures eventually rocketed to another record-breaking 105, Collette was surprised to hear from OLeif after returning on his bike from work, that he had also just biked to the library for clip art books.
That night, OLeif made Kitts’ cookies and designed an ad for the church fall festival that October.