Shady Dealers in Watches and Leeches

Sunday, April 10, 2005

It had been a hard day. Collette was not entirely sure what to make of it all. There were images of what had happened – a little girl named Madelyn with two pigtails on the top of her head and tiny diamond earrings sitting in the big plastic toy tub in the nursery, stocking up on knickknacks for her ocean voyage… seeing a house practically clothed in happy red geraniums and an old soda machine in the garage… sitting out on the picnic tables in the wind with Carrie-Bri as the late afternoon sun settled down beyond the hills… taking a bit of a drive around with OLeif and a bottle of juice from the fuel station… But there was something wrong it seemed.

Despite it all though, the madrigal dinner had been such good fun. So many of the choir kids Collette did not recognize, as it had been two years since the last dinner. But they were all dressed fabulously in brocades and silks and bright colors and festive pieces. They were all splendid. And there were old faces too, faces of old friends of ten years. There were sellers of good bread loaves and flowers in the market place and Joe as a watch-seller clothed in black robes, Rose selling leeches, and Carrie stirring up mischief in her gypsy regalia… it was all too good, it had to be written down in a separate account.

But more importantly, Uncle Clarence was scheduled for triple bypass surgery that coming Monday morning, and Collette knew everyone was a little anxious about it. It was more because he was so young, at only fifty-one, and had just had a stroke. And knowing about the process of the particular surgery was a little creepy. But Collette was not worried; such a surgery was practically routine those days. Nevertheless, it was not a light matter, and they were all praying everything would go well.