Transformations
Friday, December 14, 2007
It was a mostly typical day at the Snicketts house. Frances was still recovering. He had pulled a muscle in his leg Tuesday night and couldn’t move around too well.
But everything else was the same. While Carrie pulled out the hair dye for her next creation, Joe and Rose set the Puck on the couch, lounging between them, and sang him songs. The lyrics were, as usual, incorrect.
“Oh Shenandoah..” Joe croaked, “I need a loan!”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” said Rose, wrinkling her nose.
“No, you messed it up.”
“Go eat a pig, Snuggles,” Rose said, tossing him to the floor.
Snuggles ran for the hills.
The cats were rambunctious that morning.
“Hear that?” Mom called from the radio in the kitchen. “They’re saying two to three inches tonight.”
“That explains it,” Collette said, as the cats pounced on each other from behind the Christmas tree.
Snow was in the air. Whenever the cats sensed a storm on the horizon, they went on the attack.
Meanwhile, Carrie-Bri taught Linnea Tai Chi before Linnea left for her first birthday party gathering of the day. Linnea was constantly invited to parties.
“How does this happen?” Collette and Carrie-Bri wanted to know.
Frances and Linnea’s social lives had been fifty times that of Collette’s and Carrie-Bri’s at the same age. So while the Englishs picked up Mom and Linnea for Leai’s 7th birthday gathering at Great Skate (where Linnea once again won a funnel cake at the Limbo before returning for basketball practice with Eleda and then another birthday party), Collette and Carrie watched the bubbly Puck crawl around the living room while Collette rewrapped Carrie’s dreadlocks in brightly colored thread and silver tinsel.
But back to the hair dye. For the first time in her life, Collette was going semi-blonde. Under normal circumstances, she would never have considered it. But this time, there was a good reason for it. She didn’t want to have to wash her hair much while she was overseas, and the blonde would cover it better. It was strictly temporary.
And so Collette and Carrie dyed each other’s hair while they watched Dad’s old Israeli tour videos. And the dog ate peanut brittle bits of the floor. Dad was coming back from Iowa that night, just in time to beat the snow. Joe was off to pick up Wally from Rolla, with Curly. Come 6:00, OLeif and Collette brought the sleepy Puck up to work for the open house Christmas party. The trooper Puck lasted forty-five minutes before calling it a night while he watched his parents eat chicken strips, egg rolls, crab rangoon, salami, and miniature lemon cheesecakes served by Columns.