Tactics and Weapons, Special

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Whenever Collette had too-specific dreams about certain well-known people, she checked the internet upon waking… just in case. Including Wednesday night’s heart-pumping episode of a certain sports manager being crushed under a heavy tree limb outside of Atlanta… even if he wasn’t from St. Louis.
And what better way to follow up another round of nightmares with a phone call from OLeif on his way to work…
“Hey there. You know that one house at the beginning of the neighborhood?”
“Yes…”
“There’re two S.W.A.T. cars and a police car out front. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t walking around the neighborhood today or anything.”
Sigh.
If it wasn’t homeless persons living in the weeds with knife collections or vandalized property, it was drug running… or whatever. And in the rather decent middle lower class pupil of the lower upper class outer Greater St. Louis Area eyeball.

The corner of the northwest was a picture right out of Peter Spier.
Packed in violet-gray.

Puck got busy drinking his glass of milk for lunch out of five straws – at the same time. He followed this with an observation…
“Growing up is hard…”
“What’s so bad about it?” Collette asked.
“You have to eat fish… And other things…”

So…
Babysitting was in the cards.
Did it help to remember that one of the nightmares had been about incredible messes of destruction imposed by little children…
Battle plans were structured. Tactics, measured. Spoils of war decreed.
The Harvest of Dandelions commenced.
It was Man against Weed. And Man would win.
Perfect.
Then came the lilac.
The purple violets.
And the white.
All mixed in cups of water.
Thick, spongy soup.
They caught a fly, trapping him between the screen and the glass.
“Let’s name him Jane,” said Puck. “That’s a long name.”
“How about we give him a random name?” Luke suggested. “Like www.com.”
A chill breeze ran across the road.
The rain came light, fluttering in after two, gray crowding out the corners of the sky.
They opted to wait on the porch and mount an obstacle Marbleworks to the sky as a double-purposed water-slide.

Before four, Dad called in.
Right after he had finished editing the final chapter of his dissertation, the phone rang. RABO – confirming his contract starting the following Thursday, at his original rate.

Collette was happy to cool down the afternoon with a fish sandwich for Puck’s dinner.
One-hour Cardinals update at seven.
Puck still awake after eight; blame it on the warm evening.
A little buttered toast in the pan for Collette, the old-fashioned way, before the appearance of The Toaster.
OLeif returning late, as usual on Thursday nights.
And another day marked up in the annals.