Round Two
What do you do on a cold Holy Week/Birthday Week with no school? That’s easy: double grandma plans.
We Mazda-ed out to Florissant and Grandma’s warm little apartment, Mom, Carrie-Bri, Puck, and myself, and arranged a schedule. After gifts for Puck from Grandma: Star Wars backpack, Crayola toothpaste, 3,000 water marbles, disco ball. Puck’s eyes popped.
First on the list: one dozen Krispy Kreme glazed to go. Check.
Second, Nagle’s. That was an easy decision to make. What wasn’t so easy was Puck trying to decide what to purchase with his allotted three dollars.
“Hello,” the manager who has been there since the beginning of time greeted me. He noted the Cardinals jacket. “Hello,” he said the same to Carrie, wearing a Cards cap. “Oh! Cardinals fans!” Two minutes later, the game was switched on.
“Oh! This is such a hard decision!”
It had been about half an hour and Puck was battling between two temptations in the form of medium-sized orange rubber ball and cap gun. The orangeness of the ball finally won out. His favorite color. Grandma took home her own prize of the day: fleur de lis toilet lid decal.
Third stop, Steak ‘n Shake. Puck slapped the paper hat on his head at a jaunty angle while sandwiches were served, eyeing the gumball machines by the door.
“You know, Mom, there were some rings in that machine down there.”
What the heck; it’s his birthday week. I gave him two quarters. Out popped a shiny bronze-colored circle of metal. He was enthralled. Grandma was also impressed and asked him to get her one. Then a third for good measure, each one fancier than the first. Puck’s eyes were wide with wonder:
“MOM! CAN WE COME HERE EVERY TIME SO WE CAN GET MORE AND MORE RINGS?”
Back at the Big House, egg dyeing for Mom and Puck. Walking past the kitchen, I heard Puck compliment himself over something clever he had just done:
“Just call me Big Brain.”
He showed off his prized rings to Dad before we left after shepherd’s pie.
“Only fifty cents for a ring like that?” Dad teased. “You sure you didn’t steal that from a jewelry store?”
Back home, Puck made an elaborate spread for head-achy El Oso, laying out jams, dinner, and ginger tea. By the time El Oso pulled up the driveway the headache had already subsided, after eating lunch on the run, only six hours late. After enjoying the pampering by Puck, they read stories before bed while I watched Crackers scare herself with a used pork steak bone. Twitchy fella.