Spring Brings Mice & Frogs

Friday, March 16, 2007

It was almost time to set out the shamrocks. Mom would be having the corned beef and the cabbage on the table the next evening.

Upon arriving at work that morning, Collette saw a stack of packages wrapped in brown paper and tied in brightly colored ribbons sitting on her desk – gifts for the baby from Judah and from Evangeline (who had been visiting Wheaton during the baby shower the previous weekend). And that present weekend they were both off to Indianapolis.

So it was even more quiet at the office that day. Everyone was gone. Later in the afternoon Stephanie Buttercup and Rose came to fold the bulletin. Then Rose would return home to leave later that night with Joe for the coffee house. OLeif would join them as well.

That morning the white board on the wall read:

“Hi from the church mouse”

This was most likely left by one of the junior high kids from Wednesday night. Although Ivy would not be pleased if the message meant that they had spotted an actual mouse in the building… again.

The spring was coming, despite the chilled blue skies. Somehow Collette looked forward to it more than she had in previous years. Perhaps it was because this time she got her heavy snow during the winter, several of them. The bush was beginning to bud on the side of the house. Mrs. Lord-Welches had told her that it was probably a lilac, and that if it was pruned properly, it would be a beautiful plant. And there were green spring bulbs growing in two patches down the yard from the lilac. Collette wondered if they would be tulips.

Rose stayed at the office till close to four, until Dad and Joe could come pick her up. This was while Carrie-Bri was at work, Francis was at the RecPlex swimming with friends, and Mom was with Lydia at the rollerskating rink.

“I think I’ll treat myself to a funnel cake this time,” Mom had said to her over the phone that morning.

It was amazing how many directions a family could be pulled into in one afternoon.

Meanwhile, Rose chatted with Collette about all of the gossip chains at choir. It seemed as though the boys were just as bad as the girls in that area. Times did change. When Collette had been an alto back in choir, the altos had been silent (except for the singing) from one o’clock to two-thirty every Tuesday afternoon. They just didn’t talk. There was no opportunity for rumors, gossip, note-passing, or anything else. Apparently it wasn’t quite like that anymore.

Then Joe called; Rose asked to talk to him.

“Why didn’t you invite me last night?” She asked grumpily, referring to the fact that Joe, Wallace, Lolli, and Starr had watched movies at the South’s house without her.

Apparently they had forgotten about her and she was called into work at Subway until close. Not a single soul came to order a sandwich that night.

“Oh, and we need to get something for my frog to eat on the way home,” she said to him before hanging up.

After the conversation was over, she said to Collette, “We went to Klondike Park yesterday for a winter picnic and I saw this little thing hopping. And it was a frog and I tried to catch him. But he got away. And then I caught the next one. And he was very cold.”

Then Dad arrived to talk to Jimmy about coming on the youth retreat the following weekend. And Joe swiveled around in Ivy’s desk chair while Rose was chanting something about chocolate cake from Collette’s desk chair, and laughing at him.