Trees, Bells, Smoke Bombs, & Old Friends in a Secret World
Thursday, January 26, 2005
Thursday was a slow day in the office, as all the phone lines were down (minus the fax machine which solely sufficed for any incoming calls). Fran left soon before the afternoon began, in order to attend luncheon at home with Rosie and the Honeys. Then there were hospital calls to be made and out of town company arriving for dinner. Meanwhile, Jimmy had swiped Ivy’s jar of peanut butter. Ivy had searched for it all of Wednesday to no avail and had left a message on the white board asking for its return. But Jimmy made good by leaving a message on the white board as well, saying:
“Found – Replaced. * See Jimmy.”
… and he returned it late in the morning to its home in the cupboard.
There were terrible things in the world, as always. On the radio that morning, there was news of a truck which had run into a car from behind, driven by a fifteen year old permit driver (with an adult) and six other children, which hit a school bus in front of the car. Everyone in the car died in the fire which ensued – the adult and all seven adopted children ranging in ages from two to fifteen. It made Collette sick. And then there was news of Ruby Bells’ granddaughter who had cystic fibrosis and now had pneumonia in her left lung. She wasn’t quite a teenager, but she likely had very little time left. “Make a Wish” foundation had sent her to Disney World several years before with Ruby. And yet despite what occurred in fallen humanity, God controlled all, and nothing was out of His will.
There were other things of more cheerful natures – Ivy was cold that morning. She had begun getting used to coming home in the evenings that week, turning on the heated blanket on Megan’s bed and curling up with the cats under a throw and a mound of pillows to read by the lamplight. Collette grew drowsy just thinking on such a comfy thought. And Jimmy was telling of how Meg Saint could say “Guatemala” but not “foot” which came out as “toot” instead. And Ivy had also had teeth pulled from the same surgeon which Collette would see that next Monday. In addition, Ivy also had a wisdom tooth which had never developed, only in the bottom right of her mouth, as opposed to Collette’s bottom left. And Arnold-Skye Scot had hung pictures on the office walls while the staff was at lunch on Tuesday, which helped “comfy-fy” the place a bit more. Eve was leaving the next morning at four to head to Haiti and would drop by Mom’s and Dad’s to borrow one of their European money belts that evening. And Collette managed somehow to hear the Beach Boys sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are” on Pandora.
Carrie later forwarded Collette some conversation between herself and Lucia – the most interaction via email of which they had ever partaken, now that they were separated by a world or two:
Carrie: “Your mom gave me the sacred bell and ceremonial candles and smoke bombs for —- ——… I still love putting on plays and climbing trees, only problem is I don’t still have the time.”
Lucia: “We’ll have to schedual a special ceremony celebrating —- ——‘s third birthday. (That’s right, isn’t it? Three years ago this Summer?) Anyway, I wonder if the smoke bombs will still work? Yeah, I still love to climb trees too, but, being in the city, there are none that I’m allowed to. We went to a park the other day and while Rele and a bunch of friends were playing frisbee I got up in a tree to watch and not five minutes later, a custodian guy came by and told me I had to get down. I was so bummed, it was the first time I’d been up in a tree for almost a year.”
Carrie – “…I was planning a trip to Egypt but, no one would come with me, and the hotel I was going to book got blown up, (no joke!) soooooo… later maybe.”
Lucia – “I’m also really enjoying my classes (except one where the teacher speaks with a very heavy French-Canadian accent and is really hard to understand)… Hey, since plans for Egypt have fallen through, you could always come down here and hang out for a while over the summer, maybe even take some classes. They have so much cool stuff down here and since you’d already have a degree… Is there some Arabic speaking country that is a little less volital than the rest that you could go to? We’re taking a class about monarchy in the Old Testament and we’re going into all sorts of things about the other cultures of the time, Assyria, Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt. It’s really cool and would be a lot of fun to go to those places and see the ruins and stuff. Any way, I’m rambling.”
Meanwhile, the latest news from home was that Rose was set in the corner for pouring glue down Linnea’s back.
“The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers.” – I Kings 6:18