The Ways of Puck
Paws batting wildly at the glass. It had been awhile since Crackers and I had a morning together, just the two of us. And with the high winds of the morning, this young feline found herself inescapably drawn to the swirls of dead leaves dancing on the patio. Someday – someday – she’ll learn the effectiveness of glass against kitty paws.
I can always see him now – getting that starting run down the hallway – backpack stuffed and swung on his back, ready for the charge.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM –
POW!
I am always prepared for impact – keys, phone, wallet, and book already stuffed safely in my bag out of the potential destruction zone. Arms out to brace for the explosion of Puck.
By this point, he had already informed me on his way to the gym – solemnly – that, “It was a bad day for the first half, but a good day for the second half.”
“It started will spelling,” he explained later.
“That didn’t go so well?”
“No.”
We talked about how some days are sort of like the snowball effect.
Dinner was polished off – one item after another – five courses or so. “The Cat From Outer Space” was playing on my laptop, in all its 1970’s Disney glory. And Puck was lovingly arranging the contents of his Oriental Trading Company treasure chest at the kitchen table.
“I just love organizing things. Don’t you, Mom?”
The clappy hands were stacked neatly next to the lip whistles – “They stabilize everything, Mom.” – and the bouncy balls piled carefully next to the frisbees.
Puck had been saving his Christmas money for weeks, wondering how to spend it. But when he saw that treasure chest stuffed with birthday-party-quality knickknacks in the mail catalog: must-buy. For two weeks he waited – the standard requirement – checking off each day, one after another on the white board. And when that box turned up on the porch Wednesday night, I had to guard the steak knives before he broke through the packing tape with no thought to his personal safety.
Needless to say, all the second graders of Mr. V’s class were pretty happy to play with a pile of “clappy hands” at school on Thursday morning.