September 11

Saturday, September 11, 2010

On that ninth anniversary of particular tragedy, the skies were still ashen gray.

Over at the Silverpoon’s, Gloria had an old friend in from Mountain Home, Arkansas, Emma Thompson, with her two grandsons, whom she was watching over the weekend while her son and daughter-in-law attended a counselor’s seminar.

Strangely, after ten years, Collette still remembered Mrs. Thompson. She had come to Bible camp with OLeif and Kitts, and then the following summer also with Carrie-Bri, to a remote part of southern Missouri. And Mrs. Thompson had been one of the counselors. Three of her children Collette also remembered, the oldest of which was at the counseling seminar. So Puck played with the two boys, who were three and one years old, the older of which could read from the King James Bible, was memorizing Spurgeon’s catechism, and could add, subtract, and multiply.

Collette had remembered Mrs. Thompson as being a very kind, wise, down-to-earth sort of woman, and the memory proved true. It was good to see her again.

At four o’clock, it was time for the church picnic. And Collette had brought the Reeses peanut butter chocolate bars.

The church grounds were pretty packed. Puck initially intended to take a crack at the monster balloon-slide, but changed his mind after he saw how big it actually was. But there were smaller versions, in balloon animal form, at another table across from the face painting, in which he was not quite so interested.

Meanwhile, OLeif and Linnea-Irish involved themselves in the tug-of-war. They won.

And there was the usual smorgasbord, grilled burgers and hot dogs, and a table of desserts.

Puck was also highly interested in spider-hunting with the younger Blunt brother, who was also keen on chasing down snake holes. They spent a good deal of time at this enterprise, overturning rocks and discussing spiders and their webs. Puck was so engrossed, in fact, that he was not even interested in a hay ride. He had, of course, been very interested in the desserts.

On the way home, OLeif told Collette everything that he had learned about termites from a fellow at church who had recently had his house raided by a collection of such nuisances.