Three Days Till School
“HOLY HOT DOG BUNS! IT’S HOT IN HERE!” Puck yelled from the shower with two lungs equal to about six in another other human being.
When he returned from breakfast with his dad about an hour and a half later, Yali and I were getting ready for church. Puck joined the party. He found a mirror and a brush in the bathroom and began carefully fixing his hair. The detail lasted longer than I expected.
“I’m trying to improve … that,” he pointed to one spot in the front.
In the end, he wasn’t happy with the finished look, and mussed up the whole thing.
“Now I look like Calvin,” he said with satisfaction.
The Big House was waiting with corned beef and potato casserole for lunch. And by the mid-afternoon, we had a full house including Thumper and Jaya’s younger sister and brother. A little bit of wading pool, a little bit of cops and robbers. Jaya’s little brother had his heart set on becoming a police officer when he grew up, and had brought all his gear for the afternoon. It didn’t take long for Francis to be commissioned as his deputy.
“Have you seen my pardner?”
Meanwhile, Joe was busy watching men’s gymnastics on television. I didn’t bother to ask about it.
We had been invited to the 3rd grade popsicle party up at the school playground that evening. Puck took off running with friends. Yali just took off running. Up, down, around, in between, underneath. With a walking accident waiting to happen – and he did eventually take a spill backwards down a short flight of steps on the jungle gym – I couldn’t take my eyes off the little gumball. Eventually Violet joined us. And by the end of the evening, Yali was a hit.
“Is that Puck’s brother?”
“Aw, he’s so cute!”
“He’s staring at me! He likes me!”
“He loves me!”
When we got home that night, Puck had a proposition for me.
“Mom! Could I be on your and Sun’s podcast? Could I be a guest?”
Considering that Puck really doesn’t care about baseball at all, this notion surprised me. “Well, what would you do on the show?”
“I would say, I would say, ‘Hello! I’m Puck. And I LIKE BREADSTICKS!’ Could I be on the show, PLEASE?!”