The Future
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The month of wind blew in with little to-do that morning, although Collette was bundled cosily inside against its bitter claws. Again the skies were all gray and she listened to Tom Sudholt on the radio speak of his personal invitation to all the classical listeners of a trip to the Santa Fe Opera House. He sighed over the beauty of the New Mexican sunsets and spoke of the buffet where they might meet Christine Brewer, the opera singer from St. Louis who would perform that weekend. Collette had to admit it sounded quite marvelous. But then again, there were marvelous times in St. Louis as well.
The previous day she had once again been at home to review grammar with Carrie for her big exam, wash laundry, and supervise comings and goings while Carrie baked chocolate chip cookies and went about her doings for the day.
At one point the phone rang and Francis ran off to answer. It was Chester Hobcoggin.
“Oh, hi, Chester… What?…. Oh, no. She died? I’m, I’m so sorry, Chester.”
Francis ran back to his room to discuss the dilemma and came back later with the news that Cupcake had died, the Hobcoggin’s new little puppy. It was a sad thing, and Francis was invited over to draw some comfort to the mourners.
Meanwhile, Rose was bullying Linnea as usual, or perhaps it was the other way around. Nevertheless, Collette interfered and sent Rose screaming across the house.
“Whoa ho ho!” Rose screeched, “Aaaaaaah!” She ran, her arms up in the air, as Trooper came in for the kill.
And on the other side of the house, as commotion ensued, Linnea sat reading books quietly in Joe’s room as he tidied things up and studied for an upcoming exam. Then as Mom, Joe, and Linnea took Collette home that afternoon, Linnea had many questions as usual.
“So what about pirate treasure? I want to find some. Where is it?”
“Well, I guess you could still find some in the Caribbean, but most of it’s still under the ocean.”
“Hmmm… then we’ll stop there first on our trip,” Linnea concluded, rubbing her chin in thoughtfulness.
She referred to the grand trip around the world that she and Collette had been planning for a good year and a half or more.
“I do want to find a pirate sword.”
“Well, archaeologists still find things like that sometimes.”
“And gold?”
“Yup, sometimes.”
“Then I want to be an archaeologist. I’ll go to Egypt and dig up gold.”
And then there was a bit of a spelling bee as Linnea was anxious for Collette to quiz her. She was in first grade, but had been working third grade studies in the hopes of graduating some day with her best friend, Eleda.
“Ask me to spell sugar,” she asked Collette.
Then it was at home for a spell with hot soup while OLeif worked on photo shopping a great picture of Carrie dancing with the character “George” in “Vanity Fair.” The colors worked beautifully, and the effect was quite realistic. When Collette called Carrie to have her check her email for the picture, her reaction was perfect:
“Oohhhhhh! This is so awesoooooome! I love it; I’m going to save it as “hottest”… This is my screen-saver forever!”
And then there was a film over ice cream and a tired end to a rather OK day.
The sun was eerie that morning. It spread in streams across the gray and was most unwelcoming. Collette hoped it might rain. How much better would it be to have a sky that was one way or the other, without being wishy-washy and undecided on what to display. But what use was there in complaining on the condition of the sky? How ridiculous!
“Leave me alone, you sour sun,” Collette scolded the beaming ball as she closed the shades.
Collette was in no mood for monkey business, and even the twittering of the little red bird in the bean pod tree, was not exactly inviting. The sun glared bright by that point, and she had other things to do, but did not exactly feel like doing them. She rather dreamed herself somewhere else, taking comfort that within less than four hours, she would have other things on her plate. But as she sat there thinking, she realized how very nice it was to have things finished, with school and such. There were no worries about payment on university debts, no more exams, job searches, ponderings about what to do or where to go, no thoughts on whether or not she would ever find the right guy to marry… it was all said and done, and at only twenty. It was already finished and all set for her. It was a satisfying comfort. It wasn’t about being an easy road ahead – no one’s path was always smooth and full of daisies. No, but it was pleasant knowing that she had passed through the great pinnacles of life with good times and family and friends. There were good memories. There were no more wonderings; she could focus on everyone else and enjoy the travels of life. How spectacular was all this… very much so. And yet it was a most peculiar day.
Collette knew that Diana would laugh and roll her eyes. She would say:
“See? That’s the black box I’m talking about. I’d go out of my mind. Who wants to spend their life finding fun in cleaning and dusting and baking? Not me. No, sir. No way. I’m a career woman.”