The Time of Pumpkins
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
In which teeth are cleaned, kids are corralled, and animals are fed…
It was time for another trip to the dentist for Collette, so out to drop off Puck after a drive-by wave to Dad running across the bridge to the Research Park.
Mom and Carrie had done their magic. The house was full of ghostly ghouls, ghouly ghosts, and grinning goblins. Strings of glowing orange lights, the usual splash of brightly colored candy corn, and a pumpkin in every corner.
Back out to O’Fallon. While Collette waited for her eight o’clock call, she was surprised to find an archaeology magazine stashed in the rack by the door, and slipped through several articles of Chinese tombs, Pittsburgh finds, and the destruction of enormous Buddhas by the Taliban.
Decent dental report… nothing like the upbeat announcement of ‘your molars are bleeding pretty good…’, no matter how well one cleaned one’s teeth on a daily basis… And the cheering Puck grinning half-worried face was tacked on the No Cavities Cork Board on the wall.
“Yeah, several people have walked by asking about ‘that cute little boy’,” Collette’s hygienist said, laughing.
Back at the house, Puck was knee-deep in Johnny Quest, couched by the wood stove in which three pairs of eyeballs blinked curiously back at him. Linnea was between classes with a mug of hot cocoa and a call later from Cherry. Three years separated and the girls were still as thick as thieves. And Mom and Puck went on a walk to collect acorns to make baby jack-o-lanterns.
Meanwhile, Francis was pining for a grilled cheese…
“Collette, Mom told me yesterday that you would make me a grilled cheese today.”
“What?”
“She did.”
“Francis, are you sure you didn’t just hear that in your head?”
“I promise. She went to the store last night to get cheese just to make the sandwiches.”
“No, she didn’t!” Carrie interjected from the kitchen.
“Francis,” Collette laughed at him. “I don’t understand this. I hate cooking. But for some reason you love my grilled cheese… that anyone could make, by the way… but when Carrie makes you all this gourmet food, you shun it.”
“No kidding,” said Carrie. “Last night I made this special French turkey bisque with a tomato cream basil reduction sauce, and those boys… they were like, ‘wrap me up a piece for later’. Even Dad was like, ‘I’ll just take a small piece because I’m having a bowl of cereal.’ Talk about insulting the chef!”
“Unbelievable.”
Francis just grinned.
Then Carrie and Puck got to work painting the baby acorn-pumpkins while she and Dad teased each other about MacArthur and Sproul.
By the late morning, Dad had left for a lunch appointment, Francis was mowing Mrs. Marbles’ lawn for the last time (before the family of five, whose mom was a landscape artist, would move in after the tenth of October), and everyone else left to run errands for the day.
During the ride, Linnea became ill from reading The Hiding Place in the back seat. Reading and riding were never a good combination for the young lady.
Once arrived at Costco… Collette, Linnea-Irish, and Puck enjoyed plates of pizza — not bad, not bad at all — at the cafe while Mom and Carrie worked on the shopping.
As they departed, Puck got a smiley face on the receipt by the man checking the groceries. And Mom had bought a jumbo pack of the beautiful Hawai’ian rolls, which apparently also made some pretty rad French toast.
Then on the ride home, Carrie spoke of alabaster windows in Yemen, and Australian sheepskin rugs, while Puck found a quarter in Collette’s wallet. He grinned big double-dimpled at his Sun…
“I’ll pay you this dollar for three pennies,” came the attempted-devious offer.
Carrie took the quarter…
“Three chocolate pennies it is.”
“Conning your nephew,” Collette teased.
“Hey, that quarter just bought me a new book.”
Then Carrie asked him why there was wind.
“Daddy says that when the Earth moves, the wind comes,” he replied importantly.
“I think your daddy needs a science lesson.”
“No, he doesn’t,” said Puck, indignantly.
Back to the house, Francis was busy with Creole at Dairy Queen as usual, Collette took a call from Gloria who was in Austin with her aunt, Linnea escaped to the roof, Mom went down for a nap, and Earnest was busy turning Carrie’s bedposts into totem poles.
Carrie got busy with dinner. Sanak Yemenis fish in tomato sauce and traditional spice mixture (ground with marble mortar and pestle). And honey cake (bint al sahn) or ramadan cookies: the kind without the Islam Syrian werewolf curse of the Taliban vampire moon festival.
There were continued studies in the dining room, all the while a beige moth fluttered from landing pad to landing pad, as he had been doing since early that morning.
Joe had returned from work. He had made his first likely ‘sale’ that week, and seemed to enjoy the part-time work while brainstorming with further business ideas.
“Know what?” Carrie told Puck. “We’re going to plant a lollipop tree soon. So we don’t have to keep buying them.”
Puck liked this idea…
“So when your little Puck wants some lollipops, he will have them.”
Then Collette and Puck discussed Puck’s potential Hallowe’en costume, the Yip-Yip Monster Martian while he and Linnea were busy with chalk on the patio. Linnea was drawing an alien head when Francis came to join them…
“Francis, you wanna sit here and enjoy the summer?” Puck asked him.
Back at church, only ten kids were present, and relievingly so. Somehow the events were drawing enough on the mind to inspire no side-thought whatsoever. There were enough rubber sharks attacking rubber fried eggs and Evil Horses chasing Super Horses over fields of red flowers to drain the mind of all productive content.
The evening ended with a reunion with OLeif at the Silverspoon’s to care for the critters.