The Great Pyramids... Fourth Day: The Gospels
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, Collette decided to join Mom for a bit of a house hunt, as OLeif was too busy to get to it around the craziness of work.
First, back on the ranch, Linnea spent an hour in the morning putting together snap-beads while Dad took conference calls. Joe was once again at work and Frances was taking the opportunity of enjoying Christmas vacation over Battlefield 1942. Mom hurried off in the morning to get supplies to finish her own project for the rest of the week: cleaning out the pantry and painting the shelves. Before she had returned, however, the phone rang.
Collette had just finished telling Linnea that it was currently 8:21 at night over in Egypt, explaining the eight-hour difference between Cairo and St. Louis, when Frances ran excitedly into the kitchen, phone to his ear.
“It’s saying something about Carrie!” he cried. “What should I do? Should I say yes?”
“Yes, yes, say yes,” Collette told him quickly.
“Carrie? Hey, Carrie!” Frances was amazed to find that Carrie really was on the other end of the line.
Carrie kept her call very brief, explaining that the call was costing a lot. She sounded tired from over the speaker phone from what little Collette caught of the conversation. But they had arrived safely.
Later in the afternoon, when Mom had returned, she, Collette, and Linnea went out house-hunting and found a newly remodeled little house in walking distance of OLeif’s work. OLeif met them there to look at it, and finding it satisfactory, then offered to give them a brief tour of “the mall”, which is what they were still calling it, though no longer a mall.
The tour was extended, due to the size of the building. Although only one wing was occupied at the time. Mom was quite amazed by the vastness of it all.
This was followed by Mom, Collette, and Linnea driving around old Wentzville for a bit, looking at the old houses. There was an old donut shop by the tracks and an old-time diner. But soon they called it a day and headed back in time to see Joe before he headed out for a night of bowling with his pals. After dinner, OLeif and Collette took Frances and Linnea to the candy shop and the movies, at Dad’s treat, to see Happy Feet.
Meanwhile, Friday morning upon waking at 5:30, Collette noted that it was then 1:30 in Cairo, meaning that the girls had likely already visited the 12th century Citadel and the mosque. Following that was a jog over to Memphis, the capitol of the Old Kingdom, where they would see the colossal statue of Rameses II and a great alabaster sphinx. From there, they would tour Sakkara to see the Step Pyramid built back in the good old days of 2686BC, the oldest in the world. Then would come Giza where they would view the great Sphinx (no doubt making jokes about Collette’s nose while in the process), and were perhaps at that very moment inside one of the great pyramids. Come night, they would see the great sound and lights show on the grounds of Giza. Collette only hoped that they were feeling great, wearing their money belts, and taking good pictures.
Collette went over to the house that Friday morning, as she and Mom and Linnea had plans to drive over to Trader Joe’s for groceries and fun food for New Years’ Eve. However, upon arrival, Mom was in the kitchen painting her shelves and found that she did not feel well. By mid-morning, Dad had diagnosed her as having the flu. So, Collette stayed around with Frances and Linnea while Dad worked and Mom rested. Joe was off looking at cars with Wallace, after he had been let off work early.
Linnea sorted through her bag of Runts from the movies the night before.
“I’m saving all the banana ones for Carrie. There are ten of them left,” she said, stacking them carefully on top of each other.
And they played a round of Battleship, watched some American Girl: Felicity, and Dad went out to get all the groceries. Dad always knew how to shop for the good stuff: mounds of pizzas, pizza French breads, pizza rolls, and good Ballpark hot dogs (which they ate for lunch).
In the evening, Dad, Collette, Joe, and Frances drove up to the little house to meet Theodore and OLeif to tour the inside. This included the three bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, basement, and several closets with nice squeaky doors. Frances suggested to Collette that they use the living room for an air soft field. And Joe suggested they use the medium-sized bedroom for the baby and the smallest one for a computer room. Then they talked for awhile about the house, out front. Frances laid on his back on the front porch, looking up at the stars. And Joe sat next to him, chin resting on his fist, pondering things.
Once the tour was completed and the dads had been asked for their opinions on the property, OLeif and Collette met back at the Silverspoon’s (where the other kids were off to various activities) and discussed housing. Before leaving for the night, OLeif took them on a tour of Google Earth where they were even able to view the tops of the lopsided pyramids where the girls had been only hours before.
Denae also shared some of the giant chocolate bar (which was still being nibbled on) and showed Collette pictures from their friends in Waco, whose son lived in Japan and their oldest daughter had just married a native of Edinburgh. The wedding took place in Scotland. There were also pictures of them visiting India where they had adopted their other daughter seventeen years before. Some people led fantastic global lives.