Travels and such...
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Washington’s birthday, and Collette had just received an email from Apple Moss in Australia. She was happy to be home, but had had a wonderful time skiing in Colorado and visiting L.A.
“…[Elazar] and I had soo much fun with you all. Experiencing the mall and WAL_MART, also the tour of the trailer park and the rich houses… it was an absolute pleasure to pick up where we left off 16 years ago and I’m soo excited to keep in touch. I feel so relieved that it was really easy to catch up with you all, not once did I feel awkward…”
It was so good to have seen them again, “refreshing” as Apple had written in her letter, and they did all hope that some day before very long, they would see each other again. Even in the day’s age of advancements in technology beyond the imagination, to be separated by half a world was still a difficult thing to bypass. They could only hope and wait for one day in the future.
And then there was the painting for her to get back to. Finally, the dark part of the land was complete. There was only the small green wave, the nearer bit of yellow land, and the great blue wave. It was a good day to paint it, as the skies were still gray from the week before and all was warm and cozy indoors.
There was even a ginger ale left over. But Chinese was calling, and Collette thought that she had better not ignore it although it would have been nice to cozy up over other things that particular morning.
Collette read an article on diamonds over her snack of cinnamon toast, late that morning. It seemed quite fascinating – the fifty-eight facet beauts from all over the known world, the Arctic Circle to the unexplored wilds of Canada and the bloodied Congo. The colored diamonds, perhaps, were her favorites – in shades of sea blue and as red as fresh roses or even the color of sunshine.
Collette had two very tiny diamonds in her wedding ring, but very very small and likely only worth a couple of dollars apiece. The sapphire in the middle was likely worth more than both the diamonds, but she loved her ring and wouldn’t trade it for a full diamond.
Diana had written again the previous evening. She seemed quite happy about things. Eve, Velvet Law, Alfonso Candles, and Velvet’s sister, Shamrock, had come up to visit her that past weekend, and they had all driven in to Chicago, and had a blast. Diana wrote good things of their time together and of the Valentine’s flowers she received:
“I’m so sad that my beautiful flowers are fading! But they did last a long time! They have been sitting on my dresser and Eleda agreed that they do brighten up the room. Hey, for not having a boyfriend, I did pretty well for Valentines Day: three cards, some chocolate, and flowers! I just tell people that they are from my many admirers (yeah, with names like Grandpa, Nana, [Aunt Jo], and [Uncle Dan] ;-)!
“I had a very stressful and busy week last week, with several papers and two big tests. But I had an amazingly great weekend: [Eve], [Shamrock], [Velvet], and [Alfonso] were here Friday night until Sunday afternoon! We went into Chicago on Saturday. It was so much fun! Although I like my friends here, there is nothing like old friends who you know would do anything for you! And [Velvet] and [Alfonso] are so cute together! They act like a couple, but at the same time they are very careful that I don’t feel left out. It’s still like three friends hanging out together.
“If [Shamrock] doesn’t mind, I’m going to be [Velvet’s] maid of honor! Wow, I am going to be in so many weddings in the next few years — how exciting!”
Collette sighed after reading it. She thought Velvet was a fine friend for Diana, and they had known each other a while.
She recalled the time, two years before, when for Diana’s eighteenth birthday, she had invited all her friends from Bible quizzing and Liberty to Bahama Breeze. It was a lovely place for dinner – with shutters open to the summer winds and a crackling fire stove in the middle of the porch for cooler evenings. There were sometimes bongos or steel drums on the wooden stage on the floor, and further back there were darker tables with lit colored lamps and a tropical flavor for brick-baked tomatoes and barbecued shishkabobs.
Apparently, Alfonso had brought her a candle as a gift and had slid it nonchalantly across the table to her, unwrapped. Diana, thinking he was being funny, and had just slipped her a candle from the table centerpiece, had taken a quick whiff.
“Eeeeeew! Yuck!” She exclaimed, thinking she was playing along with the joke.
The table grew quiet, horrified. Then someone whispered to her that it actually was her birthday present. Diana was mortified.
Collette smiled in her reverie. She could see it happening. And now, these two years later, Diana would more than likely shortly be helping his girlfriend prepare for their wedding. It was sad in a small way, but Collette knew it was bound to happen. And there were at least twenty such people in her general acquaintance, ripe for the next picking. There would likely be slews of such marriages over the next five years.
There was always something interesting, wasn’t there? Collette thought it over to herself. And most people didn’t realize it or appreciate it until they thought back over it. Some thought even less of it once they did think it over. It wasn’t right to see life as so very bland and uninteresting, Collette knew. Life was all there was on the journey. Life was the journey. And after that, eternity with God or the devil. It was as simple as that. It was a sad business for those who knew they were headed for the bad place, or something near to it, concocted in their own imaginations. And yet what would they do about it – nothing. They would lay it aside for a day better suited for thinking of the great Judgment and of repentance and the life to come. Some would never be given the opportunity. And for their waiting, it cost their very souls.
Collette thought back to their honeymoon that afternoon. It was while in Grenada that they had heard the lovely young woman from South Africa – a gentle, thin, but strong thing with soft white skin like sifted sugar, dark red-brown hair pulled back in a knot against the dew of the rain forest, a pale blue camisole and khakis, a bag on her shoulder and a hearty walking stick. She had been speaking with the friendly couple from Michigan as they walked back up through the treacherous muddy paths and groves of bamboo thicker that OLeif’s arm. She spoke in her pretty quiet accent, telling of how she and her husband worked there on the ship together. She led tours while on the islands and worked in the ship’s boutiques while at sea. Her husband, it seemed, worked with the navigation up near the top. She said it was perfectly lovely and such a wonderful opportunity for young married couples. Collette did not ask, but wondered if they had also traveled on other ships, to the spicy coasts of Greece and Sicily, the cool wet green wonders of southern China, and perhaps to the wild colored wilderness of the South Americas. It seemed so very exciting, she and OLeif both came away thinking it would be marvelously grand to take on such a thing themselves.
But her thoughts were distracted as the sun had finally broken through the wonderful gray skies of the early afternoon. It was nearing two-thirty and she would soon be picked up by the kids coming back from choir.
She must remember the ice cream to bring for after dinner, and then there would be the computer programming class right afterward. There was always something of interest to look forward to in the day, even if it was a nice chapter of a good book before bed, or the coming of the mail, or a trip to the store at night for a box of envelopes and a half gallon of milk. There was always at least a little something. And most of the time, things ended up being far far grander that that.