Summer Mondays
Thursday, June 7, 2007
It was Mom’s and Dad’s 27th anniversary. It seemed that the customary gift for someone’s 27th wedding anniversary was statuary. But Collette had a different idea.
Meanwhile, on that memorable day (also being Colorado Lord-Welches’ 22nd birthday up in Iowa), Mom was taking Francis and Linnea to a “Paint the Birds” event with the Englishs at Bush Wildlife, Dad and Carrie were studying for their masters classes, and Joe and Rose were at Six Flags for the day. Dad was also trying to convince Carrie to go to Francis’ court of honor that evening and stand in for Mom up front while he and Mom were out on a date. Carrie didn’t think so. Busy, busy.
Puck and Collette decided to spend another quiet day at home while OLeif finished up work for the week in preparation for leaving for North Carolina that Saturday. He would be joined by Judah and Evangeline, Ben-Hur, Susie, Augustus, and Mollie.
The wind bellowed under the sun that day. (If one had to wait in incredibly long lines for the roller coasters, that was the day to do it.) Puck banged the tray on his swing with his knees and made general noises including an exclamation that sounded something like “m-yeah” and “nuuuuu”. The next item on his to-do list: laugh at trees.
Collette remembered the old summers working at CEF. The first year, it had just been herself and Carrie, marking Bible lessons, cleaning lonely halls, washing windows, duplicating video tapes… Coming home from one such Monday, volunteering, Collette recalled hearing about Y2K for the very first time on the radio.
The following year they had been joined by the Silverspoons, Pretzels, and Englishs. This had continued for several years. Some Mondays they gathered great piles of sticks and branches from storms the night before, other Mondays they scrubbed down the cafeteria kitchen, or worked in the mail room (where there were always sweets: cinnamon rolls, bowls of chocolate bars, Ding Dongs, sodas in the fridge, and other confections). Perhaps Collette’s favorite place to work was in the old monastery where guests were housed. It was so very silent there, walking down the darkened red-tiled halls to clean the rooms. And there was the moss-covered path through the woods, which she always wanted to explore, but never did. Lunchtime was a welcome respite half-way through the day. Sometimes there were slices of pie for dessert. And once there were barbecued rib sandwiches.
On a particularly hot summer afternoon one year, they had gathered outside at the swimming pool, waiting to be picked up at the end of the day. Kitts, Bing, Carrie, and Eve watched on in a little disbelief as Diana and Collette both jumped into the pool. Collette had been wearing jean shorts at the time, which certainly did not dry before their ride arrived. But the heat had been unbearable.
Good old times. The last year of volunteer service for Collette had been in 2001, the summer that Bing and Joe had conspired to put Tabasco sauce (a few drops) in Carrie’s water bottle. She discovered this only after she had taken a long swig and took off running to chase them down before they were called in for lunch.
The afternoon was still full of wind; Puck watched from the living room window. The branches flew in white billows, the backs of the leaves blown northward.
“Jesus loves you, baby boy,” Collette told him as he watched the wind.
Puck smiled.