The Usual Banter
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sunday – another bout of squash and the all-new peas for Puck during the worship service in the youth building. Puck seemed to appreciate the new green vegetable, and had also learned to adapt his ravenous tastes toward the green beans.
Afterward, driving from church, O-Zone on the iPod, the neighborhoods housed rings of white and brown mushrooms, sprung in yards hither and yon. Everyone had mushrooms after the drizzles.
During lunch at the Silverspoon’s, while everyone else (except for Jack, who was out of town on business) enjoyed their fajitas and root beers, Puck chewed on a stick of celery, which he seemed to enjoy.
After a deep snooze, Puck reemerged to the tunes of “Yo Yo Man” by OLeif on fiddle, Curly on guitar, and Izzy on bass. Once he accustomed himself to the high level of sound, he settled down for a gnaw on a Rubik’s cube on Denae’s lap. After shipping off with a bag of fresh basil, they hit the road for youth.
Youth had new faces that evening. With the usual Jimmy, OLeif, Collette, and Puck, Susie and Sunrise, Ben-Hur (back for a visit), Augustus, Rose, Mollie, and even Samantha, they were joined by Debbie Crample, Crusher Rum, and Goofy Nickles.
As usual, Augustus and Rose were arguing:
Augustus: “Rose, I’m reading Huck Finn again just to prove to you that it’s better than Tom Sawyer.”
Rose: “It is not better! Tom Sawyer is so much better!”
Augustus: “Hey, who is that guy and the kid outside?”
Susie: “I don’t know. They’re measuring things.”
Augustus: “No one knows who they are?”
Everyone: “Nope.”
“Maybe they’re building a house in the island out there.”
Augustus: “Awesome! We could make a fort out there and defend the church with canons!”
OLeif: “Watermelon guns.”
Finally Jimmy got down to business:
“So we’re still thinking about Jamaica for the mission trip, maybe Belize. Or there’s an Indian reservation…”
“Augustus, you could be our representative,” Mollie laughed.
“Yeah, and we all know what happened last time,” said Susie.
Apparently, via rumor, Augustus, who seemed to enjoy the fact that everyone often told him that he had huge lips, noticed that his distant relatives (the Cherokee) also had big lips. So while entering an Indian reservation at some point in his life, he stuck his head out the window and called:
“Friends!”
Kent continued:
“And yesterday we did our work project. Rose was there…”
“Yeah, all you lazy bones,” said Rose.
“Right, all you did was watch a pig roast,” said Susie.
“I did not!” Rose squawked. “I saw a pig head and I swept up everything and filled trashcans.”
The amusement continued, as usual, while Collette walked Puck around the church three times in the dying sunlight.
The evening ended with OLeif smashing Collette’s orange vase into dozens of pieces on the wood floor.
“How did that even happen?” He asked, bewildered.
Monday – Frances’ first algebra lesson. All went well. Rose was off the hook for daily supervision and was studying for exams around playing Webkins.
Interesting objects lay around the house that day, as Carrie-Bri and Rose had plundered the remains of a benefit dinner at The Columns. Objects included giant parrot and pirate helium balloons, a foam board pirate dagger:
“Avast!” Rose exclaimed, slicing it through the air, though it was broken – bent in the middle.
Twelve-dollar steaks dolloped with cream, pineapple (which Carrie juiced, although she knew all too well that she was allergic), small treasure chests of coins, and a bag of balloons, which Frances and Linnea were putting to good use:
“Water balloon bombs!”
They spent all of their morning school break running inside and out between the hall bath and the street.
“Half air, half water,” said Frances. “They work great that way.”
Collette later joined them for a demonstration on the street.
Splat! Splat!
Pieces of pink rubber lay all over the street.
“I created the mammoth bomb,” Frances said proudly. “Linnea died.”
Their balloon wars continued until Frances rejoined Collette for mathematics at the dining room table. He and Rose were in the middle of a banter:
“Rose and Tom-Tom sittin’ in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
“Frances and Milly sittin’ in a tree,
Yuck, yuck – they’re kissing.”
“Rose and Tom-Tom sittin’ in a tree,
K-I-S-S apple cider…”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Frances.
Frances and Milly sittin’ in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Which they shouldn’t be doing because they’re too young…”
And on the insanity.
Rose became bored with the conversation and went into the living room with Puck.
“I can’t wait ’till Puck learns how to crawl,” she said. “Then we’ll be partners in crime.”
That afternoon back at home, Puck swung in his swing and batted around his revolving mirror.