Skateboard Battle Scars, Talking Cheesy Bread, & Groundhog Day
Thursday, February 02, 2006
[6:56am] Collette woke to a beautiful day of rain to go hand in hand with her dream of magnificent thunderstorms out in the untamed country and jungle. Her jaw still ached a trifle, but she rather figured she would be fine making it through the day.
Meanwhile, upon OLeif and Rose returning from youth the evening before, Rose hobbled in on an injured knee. Apparently, Ecclesiastes had brought his awesome surfing skateboard, four feet long, and Rose had taken a spin on it.
“Has she ever skated before?” Ecclesiastes asked OLeif, as she took off.
“Nope,” OLeif replied.
“Oh oh…”
“Oh, it’s OK. She’s tough,” OLeif assured him.
And, yes, she was tough, although she came away with a sizable chunk taken out of her knee, and the blood gushed. Perhaps it didn’t quite gush, but it was still somewhat flowing by the time they arrived back at the house.
“We’re going to have to put alcohol on it,” Collette said, examining it.
“Good thing Carrie isn’t here to see this,” Mom noted, looking in horror at the ugly wound.
“Well, we had a friend who almost cut of his finger with a table saw once,” OLief said, “and his wife poured Irish whiskey on it. When they took him to the emergency room the doctor said, ‘Well, whatever was living on it before, isn’t there anymore.’”
“Well, I’ll go ahead and call Denae,” Mom said, “and see if I can pick up some calendula.”
“Oh, yeah,” OLeif agreed, “Mom has tons of that.”
“Irish whiskey?” Rose seemed quite horrified and OLeif burst into laugher.
[3:45pm] Collette found herself leaving work early that day at 1:15 in the afternoon, right after Ivy had left for lunch. Her jaw hurt, she was dizzy, tired, and her vision was blurred. Every time she tried to read Esther, she got no farther than a few verses before her eyes reeled. And once nine o’clock came for her to begin work that morning, she had difficulty focusing on the bulletin. In addition, her dreams and medicated stupor were confusing her. She felt very far away from reality at times, particularly when her jaw throbbed. And she grew angry easily over the spoiled self-centered youth of the day, which seemed to include every kid she knew. No sense of reality, no sense of visible faith and love for Christ, or any cares for it if it really existed, and an enormous self-satisfaction in all their piggish wealth of the present. It made her sick. Ungrateful! A pox on them all! Sigh… what sinners everyone was.
There were eccentric times when Collette wished to disappear from everything she knew of American life in the twenty-first century. By that time, it was a cliché to escape it. However, she wondered what the viewpoint might have been of a Christian living in the early 1600’s in Norway, up in the mountains. Quiet, peace, few possessions, shepherds, stillness… How would she view things differently? Questions, questions… Unanswered.
Meanwhile, in other news, Shepherd and Malaya had bought their first house in St. Louis. Collette was happy for them – another step in their lives together. Joe dropped by the office to discuss the wheelchair ramp with Mr. Swiss. Collette was labeled a chipmunk by the staff, which she was expecting. Rosemary related the info on the communal showers at the work camp down in Louisiana, from which she had just returned four days before. And it was Fran’s favorite holiday – Groundhog Day. Ivy and Collette made signs reading “Happy Groundhog Day!” on the white board and taped one to his door. Jimmy walked around the office with a very dusty golf bag thrown over his shoulder, for no apparent reason. He walked through several times with the thing on his back.
“It’s like his sidekick!” Ivy exclaimed. “I can’t stand it! Dust that thing!”
Collette learned on Thursday just how amazing temporary relief was. It was truly a wonderful thing. After being racked by several bouts of pain that day, she was welcomed with a few brief hours of relief, here and there. It made her all the more thankful for good health, and she made another promise to herself to eat better foods (which was always the promise she made to herself when she experienced pain).
Meanwhile, at the dinner table, several important discussions were taking place:
Number one: Should Joe send Echo-Josue flowers when he asks her to the prom?
Rose and Mom both told him not to send her flowers.
“Maybe a corsage,” Rose said, “if she goes with you.”
Collette thought it was rather funny that Joe was going to ask a girl to prom. If a guy had ever asked her to prom, she knew that Dad would have said no. But that was in the earlier days. Even Carrie was allowed to go to prom with Oreo at the end of her sophomore year after he had sent her a dozen red roses. And now Rose was the same age and might be asked herself. Collette didn’t think there were any worthwhile kids at choir with whom to go to the prom. Didn’t Joe say himself that Rose was the only girl in choir who wasn’t a ditz? Even when she was still in choir, there was little of any substance. Fluff, giggling, and silliness – the boys and the girls. But what did she know about the whole situation? Times changed…
“Don’t ask her until you’ve talked it over with Dad,” Mom encouraged Joe. “This is something special you and your daddy should talk about before you say anything.”
Joe nodded, agreeing. And he ended up not asking her at madrigal practice the next afternoon.
Number two: Should Linnea be made to finish all the food on her plate at dinner that night?
The vote was unanimous and she was not given permission to leave until her plate was cleaned. Such an episode brought Collette through major deja vu. How many times had she been forced to remain at the dinner table for hours to finish cold broccoli or pea soup? Either that, or finish it for breakfast the following morning. And so for Linnea that evening, meatballs, succotash, and cheese bread were required of her to be eaten. Soon, Carrie began to name the food.
“Come on, Linnea,” she said sternly, pointing at her bread, “’Young Cheesy’ here needs to be eaten.”
As Linnea giggled and went to take a small bite, Carrie continued:
“No, aw, man! My bling! Don’t you chew off my bling!”
Another bite.
“Hey! My gold tooth! You just ate my gold tooth!”
Another bite.
“Now, don’t you come close to my Air Force 1’s. You hear? Don’t you come near them things.”
Another bite.
“My Air Force 1’s!”
Linnea giggled until she had finally finished her plate.
Then OLeif, Joseph, Elizabeth, and Carrie went out to the movies “End of the Spear” and to coffee at the Crooked Tree.
“Remember me, O my God, for good.” – Nehemiah 13:31b