Tenebrae

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Collette trained Forget-me-Not in the ways of the office that day. By the end of the morning, she was already getting a sore throat. She had never had the need to talk so much during a day, especially a Thursday, where most of her time was occupied getting her work finished, which never required much talk.

The sore throat was accompanied with two or three sporadic contractions, which did not hurt very badly.

But Forget-me-Not was a quiet, pleasant, calm woman. She would be taking over Collette’s position in full while her two daughters were at home working on their studies for the day under the supervision of their father, who Collette assumed worked from home. There was something very very familiar about Forget-me-Not. Collette was almost certain she had seen her somewhere before. But maybe it was just that she looked somewhat as though she could be a sister of Karla Succotash.

Come evening, there was a good spread of fried chicken, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and other dishes over at the church for the Maundy Thursday/Good Friday tenebrae dinner service. This included an hour of dinner followed by an hour-long service and communion in the dark, lit only by thirteen candles. Despite the lack of light for congregational hymns and singing, the service seemed to go well.

Meanwhile, OLeif was downtown at Memorial Presbyterian, rehearsing for the Easter morning service. He was playing viola, despite the fact that he could not read alto cleft. He returned later that night to pick up Collette from the house.

It had been a quick and productive day, all in all.

And in other news, Rose was seriously considering starting her masters degree at Mizzou the following fall.

“(Gideon Spilett), too, had witnessed every battle, direct from the front lines – revolver in one hand, notebook in the other – and never did his pencil quiver as the grapeshot flew all around him. He took care not to overburden the wires with incessant and unnecessary telegraphs… But his serious character was enlivened by a certain touch of humor; thus, after the Black River affair, firmly resolved that his newspaper would have the results of the battle before the rest, he maintained his place at the window of the telegraph agency for more than two hours by transmitting the first few chapters of the Bible. It cost the New York Herald two thousand dollars, but the New York Herald was the first to know.”

– The Mysterious Island, p.13