Things that Kill Lovebirds
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Blessing’s 23rd birthday out in Columbia. Collette wondered if she would have a lonely little celebration as a school teacher living on her own. Or maybe Jashub would think to take her out for dinner like a good big brother.
Meanwhile, work was a little crazy that morning. It started off fine. Ivy came bearing donuts.
The electricity was shut off for three hours, beginning at nine o’clock. A fellow from a printing company had a meeting with Ivy in the conference room. The office was becoming warm and muggy and the little fridge would not keep lunches cold for very long. Then Jimmy brought in little Meg with him for the day, who colored pictures for the afternoon in the conference room and danced loudly around Ivy’s and Collette’s desk, singing gibberish.
“Mommy says I’m crazy,” she informed Collette.
When the electricity returned somewhere after noon, Judah’s computer had been fried in the process and would not even pull up the screen. This followed with a lengthy and serious conversation between Ivy and Judah, while Collette caught up with the bulletin.
“Well, I must get home to my babies,” Judah said finally at nearly three o’clock in the afternoon.
Apparently Judah and Evangeline were babysitting lovebirds for someone at seminary.
“They’re so tiny and they climb inside your pocket and stick out their heads,” he was saying.
Then he proceeded to tell them about the list they had left with the birds regarding everything that could kill them, including burning scented candles nearby, cooking meals in certain types of pots (the fumes would be deadly), and drowning in the toilet… Why the last thing was on the list, they weren’t quite certain.
Come the end of the day, the air was heavy and uncomfortably warm. OLeif took off for the Pi’s for another bout of computer fixing. And Collette worked on projects around the house.
The following Thursday, Collette would be training her replacement – Forget-me-not Crample.