Unexpected Thursday
8:40. That’s what the clock read this morning when I woke up from an uninterrupted eight hours. These west coast late night Cards games… Anyway, Puck beat me to it that morning: 5:15. His explanation to Carrie-Bri went something like, “I’m just so used to getting up early for these bike rides now.”
When we got over there to pick him up, he was lounging up in the treehouse hammock, anxious to have a tick removed from his person. He walked back through the patio door, arms swinging.
“Alright! Let’s get this over with!”
Unbeknownst to myself until Tuesday, El Oso had the day off. So we drove east through The Valley, blankets of puffed August clouds, mild temps in the upper 70’s.
A little brunch in the form of croissant sandwiches (Hardee’s) by the Chesterfield fountains.
An hour later or so – wasn’t really keeping track of time because the boys were practicing their evil laughs and listening to Marty Robbins – we arrived in Red Bud, Illinois. Normally I would have no reason for driving out there. But it had been years since we’d seen Fort de Chartres. Coasting through the subtle incline of silent forested backroads, then down from the bluffs into a sweeping valley. Almost all corn, crossed by railroad tracks.
The reconstructed 260 year-old fort, all to ourselves. Not even an employee on the site. So quiet. The occasional fly-over. Swallows, crickets, beetles, bees. Fabric of a British flag snapping in the wind outside a primitive Catholic chapel. A land once tangled in wild blackberries, cherries, plums, and grapes. Even inhabited by parrots. Darned if they didn’t paint a turquoise and sun yellow parrot in the wooded mural of a museum packed with broken French ceramics and military buckles. Illinois as it was in the 1700’s.
World Market. No real reason. But we organized a case-worth of strange sodas from around the world. Puck and I went with strawberry (Puck, just because he likes those Japanese versions that let you pop a glass marble down from the top), while El Oso thought flavors like cucumber and pepper (as in the spice) would be somehow more appealing. Then Puck found a hinged-fingers wood hand sitting on display. He was in love.
“Dad! Dad! Mom! Can you put this on my wish list? Put it on high pree-ority, the highest pree-ority that you can go!” Then he turned to the checker. “How do you look this up online?”
Five Guys Burgers to join the sodas. And a 1971 Disney: “The Barefoot Executive.” Some good old-fashioned dad-and-son wrestling, Lego Star Wars computer games to wind it down.