The Fictional Doubles

Friday, July 24, 2009

On Friday, Puck slipped into Linnea’s trainers and marched around the house for a good part of the morning, carrying the peach box, which Mom had given to him to carry around Donkey and Pingo.
He also tried a Dixie cup of pink lemonade from Mom’s new cooler, which made him very happy. Happy enough to let loose the spigot and pour pink lemonade all over the kitchen floor, in his enthusiasm to have another drink.

And Francis was very mad because he had contracted the dreaded poison ivy.
“Ah!” he exclaimed. “It gets me so mad. I was never allergic before. I used to run through that stuff.”
Perhaps he was more allergic than he had thought. Not as immune as, perhaps, Great Grandma Combs, who used to eat poison ivy leaves.
To make him feel better, Collette made him a Swiss omelette, at his request. One of Francis’ many edible weaknesses.

Then Collette joined Mom and Carrie on the necessary errands of the morning, leaving Francis and Puck to their wrestling match and thrilling game of Hide & Go Seek.
While out, Collette picked up six packs of colored index cards for her language program. And they brought back bourbon chicken, Sun Chips, and cream puffs for lunch.

While Puck napped (or rather, made excuses not to nap (i.e. fake sneezing, calling out, “Mama! I got a ‘squito bite!”), Collette continued to read Silence, a novel about Portuguese missionaries to Japan in the 1600’s, recommended by Justus of Orange.

Then she and Carrie-Bri spent a little time discussing the fictional doubles of all their family members. The list was inconclusive, but mostly appropriately matched:

Dad – Mr. Bennet (Pride & Prejudice)
Mom – Pollyanna
OLeif – Doug (King of Queens)
Collette – Sophie (Howl’s Moving Castle – Japanese Anime)
Carrie – Undecided
Joe (when younger) – Louis (Even Stevens)
Rose – Liz (30 Rock)
Francis – Johnny Quest
Linnea – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Puck – chubby mouse (Spirited Away – Japanese Anime)

In the heat of the afternoon, while Francis mowed the lawn, Linnea and Puck rolled up and down the driveway in Francis’ engineless go-cart.
They then adjourned inside for ‘jumping practice’.

Next, Lucia arrived to join Carrie-Bri at the Coldplay concert that night.

For the evening, it was the first time OLeif and Collette had taken an official date, probably since Iceland. So Puck was dropped off for the night at the Silverspoon’s, in order to prepare him for a week’s worth of nights away from home by the time October came around.