Recovery
Monday, February 14, 2011
Laryngitis was quickly setting in. Collette was no stranger to this dilemma. It had come once before when she had worked at the church office and had been, gratefully, unable to answer the phones for the entire day.
It was time to take things easy.
Breakfast, with the addition of toast.
As Collette scraped the last of the butter out of the little tub, Puck looked over his shoulder from his seat at the table…
“No more butter, eh?”
Into the morning, Puck was busy singing songs from Sunday School…
“I can’t keep Jesus’ love in a box… I can’t keep Jesus’ love in a bag… I can’t keep Jesus’ love in a jar…”
And while Collette rested on the couch, Puck played for an admirably lengthy amount of time while listening to the rest of Around the World in 80 Days from Japan to America to England, and asking questions as appropriate…
“Did they make it on the boat?”
“Are they bad guys?”
“Is that the good guy?”
“Why don’t they like the train on their land?”
Etc.
Omelets for lunch.
Puck immediately struck up a contest: who could finish drinking his milk, or her water, respectively.
“Can I win?” he asked.
“Yes,” Collette replied.
“Don’t win, Mama,” he said, guzzling his milk.
And Collette’s throat seemed, once again, on the mend.
Meanwhile, the snow was melting by the pounds as the temperatures edged towards the 50’s.
Puck took his quiet hour with Donkey, the good little chub-chub, looking quite handsome in his new haircut while Collette continued her lazy day with a viewing of another Cary Grant film from the Tokyo 1964 Olympics. The chap always seemed to have the perfect line to say.
There were few interruptions during the film, but for the occasional call-out of a question, such as…
“Mama? Could I have an elephant?”
Or…
“What happens when you don’t eat bubblegum?”
Or…
“Is he tired?” he asked, holding up his stuffed longhorn. “Do you see his tired eyes?”
Before three o’clock, the spring-like weather warranted opening the windows.
At dinner, Puck progressed to question number twenty in the Children’s Catechism.
And he easily gave himself a purple pirate’s mustache from his dessert of blueberries.
OLeif returned with the groceries before six, just in time to have a short round of Minecraft with Puck for the evening.
In celebration of the holiday, he had also brought back an array of Reeses peanut butter cups, Sun Chips, and chocolate-vanilla ice cream.
“I couldn’t remember which kind you liked best,” he said.
And for Puck: a Valentine’s sucker and a stack of library books.
The house quiet before ten, as OLeif would leave by 5:30 again the next morning.