Vincent & Pablo
Sunday, May 22, 2011
In which Vincent Price, Pablo Honey, and Tornadoes are celebrated…
It was Freja Toast’s 40th birthday and she gave the final adult Sunday School class of the quarter to a gathering that included her parents, brother, sister, and extended family — one of the best women Collette knew — after a brief introduction by her husband, Jeremiah, a man everyone loved, who had just returned from Hong Kong that past week.
It was time for Vincentennial, so OLeif and Collette drove down to the 12:30 showing of The Raven at the History Museum where a large crowd was already gathered.
Having never seen the film, they were both quickly surprised to discover that it was a comedy set in the late 1400’s with a quirky 60’s script. The audience laughed loudly the whole way through the 86 minutes of potions and spells.
They left with a shiny print-up and a special edition Vincent Price newspaper. More to follow the next evening at Wash-U.
On to the Honey’s house.
Pablo’s party was a smash hit. They were only a handful of the four hundred or so RSVP respondents. Amongst familiar faces were Samantha Bee, the McCrae family, Erasmus, and Sinai and Rosie. Francis and Puck joined them shortly later.
Outside was a giant blow-up bouncy house. Puck’s eyes lit up. He was in Heaven. He encouraged the other available children to jump with him, all of whom were older and busy mastering flips inside the cage. When asked later about these friendships that were quickly formed and just as quickly diminished…
“I said to him my name was Octavian Theodore Puck Silverspoon and my other name is Puck. And I said, ‘play with me’, and he did. Then he didn’t want to be my friend anymore.”
But Puck forgot these troubles as soon as they had come. Because the tables were laid with heavy bounty: pigs-in-a-blanket, mini burgers, sushi, fruit plates, cheese and crackers, lemonade, ice water with lemon, old metal coolers of sodas, two large cakes, one in chocolate, one in vanilla, five or more sorts of truffles, cookies, and fudge.
There was some brief catching up of plans, including the nine-day cruise that the the Honey family (minus Augustus) was taking to Mexico and Belize.
When they left, the sky had covered over in gray and the winds were rising.
When they returned to the house, a decision was made to forgo the first St. Louis Lion’s home soccer game, because the skies were heating up. The three girls and Mom sat on the patio as the skies turned and the thunder grumbled and Puck chased Earnest in the yard. Then Earnest chased Puck.
And while Mom and Puck made popcorn on the front porch, Collette cut out Carrie’s very last three dreadlocks with three crunching snips.
Purples, blues, reds, and golds.
The jingle was gone, after four years.
“So this is what it feels like to be grown up,” Carrie said, a little woefully.
Shortly after Francis returned from Kohl’s for some last-minute purchasing, then came the sirens and everyone eventually began to gather downstairs with the remaining animals, after Francis had used old window screens and a large case of Dasani water to cover the windshields of the cars.
“Hail protection.”
Earnest crawled around on Dad’s shoulders after Dad had inspected Francis’ just-purchased pants from Kohl’s before their early morning departure the next day.
“Were they on sale?” Dad asked him.
“Well, I get whatever Mom tells me to get,” Francis replied, “so yeah, they’re probably on sale.”
Rose had brought her purse down with her, and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. When going back upstairs for something, she called over her shoulder…
“If I get sucked up, you may have my money.”
As the graphically intense splatch of hot pink passed just over their home, OLeif and Collette joined in the jokes about the possibilities of returning to utter destruction. And later, as they prepared to leave, Francis had a few words.
“Well, if you get back home and your house is gone, you’re welcome to come back here.”
They found it necessary, on their way home, taking into consideration the possibility of their house being leveled upon return, that advance sustenance would be appreciated. Turkey and cheese Lunchable and bottle of milk for Puck, a variety bag of spicy-stick-corn-dog-beef things, and powdered sugar donut gems. OLeif topped it off with a green-tea-Sprite. QT. The provisions.
Oi, splurges… And more thunderstorms that night.
And in other news…
OLeif was now the only seminary student remaining at church.
And somewhere in Toledo, it was Awesome’s wedding day.