That Trilogy from the 80's

Friday, January 6, 2012

So it was back to the office once again for the day of Epiphany.
But not before OLeif and Collette shared accounts of their respective dreams. While Collette was busy raising her heart rate over the guilt of having accidentally murdered a man with a gun in an obscure loft of a barn, where his skeleton remained sleeping in the hay, and she had never turned herself in… OLeif was busy floating through space where all the stars were various types of Sharpie markers.

Collette hit the office early, exchanging a volley of hugs and kisses sent through the air to and from Puck, as he and his daddy pulled out of the parking lot. Babe Ruth thought he had pneumonia. Kate forgot to disinfect the phone before she left work the previous afternoon. Aleece Bananas, mother of two teenage boys, drove a motorcycle and had a pilot’s license. A bubbling Medieval brew of Airborne to begin the morning. A little music from Iran. Henri passed through before noon, and then out to Frisbee Golf with Francis and some of the boys. The high was supposed to hit 70. And the day was fine.

Shortly after one o’clock, Collette was picked up from the office, by Dad, Linnea, and Puck. Back at the house, Carrie was doing in-depth research on histamine allergies. Meanwhile, Joe had been hiking with Wally and Tor on Howell Island – something about floating on driftwood out in the Missouri River – and then off to a different game of Frisbee Golf. The girls were gathered on the front porch, and with the fluffy curiosity of Earnest. Puck was wrapped in a fluffy blue blanket, though it was hardly necessary, at 69 degrees.
“Sun?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you like to let your little bun-bun run away and find its mama?”

Back home again at just before 2:30, Collette and Puck enjoyed reading on the porch until it became a little chill. It was sort of strange to see a woman in tank top and shorts walking down the street like it was any ordinary afternoon in June. And then indoors to prep a batch of brown rice bread.

OLeif returned after a farewell party for a co-worker, but not before Puck had called him up to tell him about his day and to say…
“Hey, Dad. I broke my finger. That was a joke.”
And with the arrival of movie night came the entourage with profferings of Carrie’s homemade carrot cake and ice cream from the kids. There was also an entire box of desserts from the Mediterranean, all of them described as pastries stuffed with nuts. And honey. A little bag of pistachio dust accompanied. And, of course, The Return of the Jedi. Apparently, the previous evening, Magnus and Joe had visited Rose upon false pretenses.
“Yeah, so I call up Magnus and say, ‘Rose wants us to come over. She has fries.’ And Magnus is like, ‘Fries? I’m in.’”
“And we get there,” Magnus said, “and she’s like, ‘I told you I had fries. I didn’t say I would make them.”
“I have to save them for fish and chips nights,” Rose retorted.
Carrie had earlier reported that the boys had been back early, by 8:45.
And of course no movie night was complete without a little Mystery Science Theater 3000, mixed with appreciation for the trilogy. Magnus, had apparently been in a Star Wars kick all year, and talked about the art behind it.
“I had no idea you were into Star Wars,” said OLeif.
“Well, he does have a Star Wars shirt,” said Rose.
“And now Han Solo emerges with an entirely different shirt,” said Magnus, as Han was released from carbonite.
“It deteriorated, and magic made a new one,” Rose explained.
Back in Yoda’s cave…
“Aw,” said Joe. “He used his little Jedi skills to make it.”
“Do you think Kermit the Frog and Yoda have the same voice?” OLeif asked.
“Yeah, I could always picture Yoda singing ‘Rainbow Connection’,” said Joe.
“I think it’s Fozzie Bear,” said Rose. “Aw. He’s tucking him in for death.”
“’Yoda. I am your father.’”
“I should start sending work emails in Yoda talk,” said Rose. “’Much work done, have I.’”
“So how could they make a seventh film if everyone dies in this one?” OLeif asked. “Oh, wait. Maybe I’m thinking of Hamlet.”
“Argh!” Magnus garbled. “Why does he keep saying he shouldn’t have gone to fight Vader? Why does he keep saying all these bad things will happen? Nothing bad happened! Why!”
“Alzheimer’s,” Rose suggested. “He can’t even construct his sentences properly… And he’s green.”
“Yeah,” said OLeif. “He’s senile. Have some baklava.”
“Ok…”
“When I’m about to croak,” said Rose, “with my last breath, I’m just going to say something like, ‘One last thing – the most important thing of all…’ or ‘The treasure is…’ or ‘All my fortune…’ And then I’ll croak.”
“Well, I’m just going to hold my last breath as long as I can,” said Joe.
“I’m going to be buried in a cardboard box and burned,” said Rose.
Something about $400 at Home Depot…
“’No,’” OLeif imitated her. “’It will be an open casket and it will be a square!”
The mission was about to begin…
“No, don’t take the wookie! He’s the loudest thing!”
Occasional spouts of giggles from Magnus…
The Forest of Endor…
“It’d be really funny if they were wearing bright pink suits,” said Magnus.
“Yeah, and they say, ‘Star Wars Champions’.”
“’Kings of the Galaxy’.”
“Those things look like ancient space golfer hats.”
Some fake crying from the boys…
“I wasn’t crying.”
“I was a little.”
“I was too.”
“Yeah. I was totally crying.”
As Luke departed into the mist of a rope-lashed jungle tree Ewok bridge…
“Oh. Those lashings are so pure,” said Joe, in his Magnus-Joe-nonsense-voice. “I’m a Boy Scout. I know Boy Scouts so good. I was there!”
“Indians,” said Magnus.
“Campfires.”
“Bear trappings.”
“Kumbaya, my Lord…”
“Shhh… You’re going to wake up Puck.”
“I don’t care! He needs to know!”
“You know, Mark Hamill is John Boy’s cousin in real life?” Rose lied.
“Are you serious?” replied Magnus. “Or are you just saying that because of the moles?”
As Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker prepared their final epic battle…
“’See ya later, Dad!’”
“’I want an apple sundae with you later, son.’”
“’Kids these days… All with their iPods and new light sabers and green blades… I just don’t understand this…’”
“If a teddy bear whistled at you,” said Rose, “what would you do?”
And once again, childhood was relived.