Upswing

Sunday, Collette woke feeling a little worse in concentrated parts of her body. But the good news was that, overall, the rest of her organs had decided to cooperate, and she felt vastly better as a whole.

Come 8:00 or so, Mom had arrived before OLeif left for church. Puck would have his personal babysitter for the morning and Collette would be able to rest. He was a good baby – cooed and gooed and blewed throughout the morning hours.

“Ooo ooo,” was his latest favorite phrase.

While he napped, Mom went out to shop for juice, echinacea tea, lunch, etcetera.

Echinacea tea was known for blowing Collette’s hair back. Tea of almost any kind was famous for doing that. Maybe not blueberry or red tea. But Collette’s taste buds did not appreciate most hot drinks. Sometimes Collette wondered if they held conventions while she slept and decided which new hot drink to ban that week. So far, they had ruled out most teas, all coffees, cappuccinos, frappuccinos, mochaccinos, lattes, and anything created (even remotely) via coffee beans. They did seem to be partial toward hot chocolates, however, but rarely saw them because of the caffeine content, which Collette didn’t like. Cider was good too. Maybe it wasn’t just hot drinks. They also hated alcoholic beverages. Even the smell of wine made them come running with torches and pitchforks, Collette’s natural gag reflex.

Come after noon, Mom returned home in order to see to the family’s dinner, and OLeif came back to bring Puck to the Silverspoon’s to celebrate Theodore’s birthday.

Collette still lounged in track pants and an old t-shirt on the couch, drinking a little juice, brewing a little tea, never quite making her body nap, and watching more bizarre foods.

“Really, who came up with this show?” She asked herself.

Sometimes it was nice to have lonely sun-danced, wind-blown afternoons at home. Mom had opened the windows to the October freshness earlier that morning. And Collette felt herself feeling almost normal and forgetting about her illness.

That evening, OLeif took off for youth after dropping off Puck at the house. He was later returned, wow attached and hyper-giggled, by Dad, Mom, and the boys. After Joe and Frances had carted in Puck’s new chest of drawers (courtesy of Grandma Combs), they raided the fridge of juice (mostly to use the ice maker, which was always a novelty). Then Puck was put to bed by his grandma and they watched Andy Griffith while looking through old Maine vacation photos.