Send her South

Puck was already having more fun with the broom at the house that morning. Francis, curled up in a blanket on the kitchen floor, giggled whenever Puck poked him with the broom.
Puck giggled in return.
“Are you hunting a Francis?” Collette asked him.
It was cold. By the afternoon, Linnea promised that she saw snowflakes falling from the sky.
“See, look,” she said, running in from outside. “One just melted on my hand. That’s proof for you.”
Linnea was going to camp with the American Heritage Girls that night.
“Linnea doesn’t know if she wants to continue American Heritage Girls,” Mom was saying. “She thinks they don’t do anything tough, like the Boy Scouts.”
“You’ll change your mind after tonight,” said Collette.
“You’re going to freeze to death,” said Carrie.
Linnea thought this was funny. So in preparation for the night of bitter chill, Mom gave Collette and Carrie-Bri a Target list for their errand running that morning: knee high socks, thermal underwear, knit gloves, and heat packs.
They never found the heat packs, but Joe did bring Puck down the Hot Wheels aisle.
“He gets to pick one out,” Joe said. “I’m going to buy him one.”
Puck seemed very happy with the little yellow ferrari that Joe found for him.
“That was my first Hot Wheels too,” said Joe.
“Car-car! Car-car!” Puck shrieked with happiness, when presented the boxed car.
He made a face of intense strain as he attempted to pull the plastic case off the cardboard backing, but was reassured that the car would be removed later, after they visited the grocery store.
The grocery store provided their cart with a bag of Halloween cookie cutters and sprinkles, at Carrie’s choice. And the air was full of cold and cinnamon and cider.
“Send me south,” Carrie muttered, diving her face below the collar of her jacket. “I can’t take the frigidness. One way ticket to the desert, please.”
The afternoon concluded with a council around the giant bowl of trail mix on the kitchen counter, for Collette, Carrie, and Rose (once she had returned from a meager day at work) – to analyze the world in general, as usual.
As Collette and Puck left for the day, Rose was in the process of being squished by Carrie on the leather couch.
“Careful, girls!” Mom exclaimed, as a great boom was heard from the living room.