The Mother of all Exams
Saturday, April 14, 2007
It rained throughout the night. Collette could still hear it falling at two o’clock in the morning. A pleasantly dreary day for exam-taking. Collette had never enjoyed taking exams on sunny days. Although Joe and Rose might not have shared the same opinion. Joe was off before seven that morning to some remote high school way up north for the ACT. And Rose would be at Meramec for a good three hours of a one-sitting exam – no breaks. It was only three short years before, that Collette had also found herself in the same place. They were the most silent and quick three hours she had ever before experienced.
And so Mom, Collette, and Rose headed out at seven-thirty that morning to bring Rose to her own three hours “of doom”. In fact those were her last words as she departed the car into a 35-degree hazy rain:
“Farewell – I go to my doom!”
Mom and Collette spent the following hours getting lost around the city and a break at QT, not very often being in that part of the world. Sometime around ten-thirty or so, they found themselves in Arnold, and called Dad for directions back to the college. A little thunder and a little lightening and even a little sleet-ish snow also accompanied the morning, but nothing much of which to speak.
Nearing twelve, Rose returned to the car, shivering in all her bones.
“I’ll find out my score in six weeks,” she said, her teeth chattering.
And as with most important things in life, they would just have to wait to discover the results.
“Oh, well…” Rose continued. “Anyway, it’s break time. No school! No school! No school!”
Collette had to explain to her that, yes, she would have school until baby decided to come, particularly because Rose had another rather significant exam scheduled for May. Rose insisted that she would reschedule it (again). Collette thought not.
So they dropped off Rose at work, where Carrie-Bri had already been for several hours. And upon return to the house, Joe was already back from the ACT and headed out the door to work the sound for Flint River at their next engagement that afternoon.
The rest of the day was devoted to fixing up ceiling fans between Dad and OLeif. And Mom helped Collette finish straightening baby’s room and various other small projects which Collette was always too tired to finish by the evening hours upon returning home.
Meanwhile, Linnea had been invited to Eleda’s 10th birthday party that afternoon. She was to come dressed as her favorite character from a book. She had chosen Nancy Drew. Collette had to admit that she looked pretty darling in her khakis and white shirt. Mom had tied one of Rose’s bright green scarves around her neck, she wore a stretchy yellow headband in her hair and Mom had curled her hair out at the ends (as Nancy Drew was often portrayed on book covers). And her prop was a small flashlight.
In other interest of the day, Collette discovered that the gold, ruby, and pearl ring which she had been wearing lately (due to the fact that her wedding rings no longer fit on her finger), was, in fact, her great-great grandmother’s engagement ring. It was the same great-great grandmother who had died of tuberculosis in 1920. That was about the time that her daughter, (Great Grandma Jewel), had been sent to live on an Indian reservation in New Mexico while her dad and four brothers looked for work in St. Louis. Needless to say, the ring was at least a century old.
Collette was also informed by Mom that Polly’s future mother-in-law spoke no English, none whatsoever. That was bound to be an interesting factor in Polly’s new family in and of itself.