Warm April
Saturday, April 28, 2007
It was shaping up to be a hot week, beginning that very day. Even Saturday morning the sun was already shining in full on the blue jays and cardinals and squirrels frolicking through the neighborhood. They flocked from seeds to berries and branches, hunting out a filling breakfast, interrupted only occasionally by the distant train whistle from the tracks down on the other side of the highway.
Collette decided that Puck looked like a frog whenever he was picked up. His long arms and legs sort of sprawled out like frog legs. Of course his arms reminded her of a Muppet for some reason. And often, when he tried to make out faces from a distance, his own face took on the appearance of an angry butterfly. This was somewhat akin to Oleif’s own ability to make such an expression. There was no other way to describe it.
Meanwhile, the rummage sale was going on up at church. OLeif and Collette dropped by for a spell to see how it was going. Rose and Molly looked pretty bored. And the pickings were slim, it seemed, compared to the year before – a few long tables set up with the usual montage of rubber toys, forgotten Christmas decorations, burned out video tapes, and several pieces of ratty furniture. Collette wondered if the youth would meet their needed funds quota for their various trips that summer.
Francis greeted their arrival with a shout of, “Collette! Look what I got for twenty-five cents!”
He proudly displayed his paint ball gun. Apparently they had decided to let it go for much less than the original five dollar ticket.
And Joe had found yet another bike to fix – a road bike, decent in weight, he said. He carted it off in the red car as he left Rose and Francis behind to finish assisting at the sale. Joe had a date with the Saint Louis Zoo that afternoon, with friends.
“I work at seven tonight,” Rose sighed. “Another prom.”
Collette felt sorry for her.
And in the field beyond the church, red-winged blackbirds perched on stalks in the fluffy mounds of little white daisies, which reemerged every spring. Collette hoped they would stay awhile – it was a beautiful field when entirely in bloom.
Also while there, OLeif purchased a rubber dinosaur for Puck. On the way home, he dropped off at the fuel station for slushies for himself and for Collette.
Come afternoon, it was time for a walk. It had been so long since Collette had been able to actually take a walk outdoors. So they circled part of the park in O’Fallon with the stone chimney where Violet had received her proposal four years earlier.
Christmas lights hung high in the trees, still, swinging in the early evening winds. These were leftovers from the Christmas light drive given there every year. Numerous black and yellow caterpillars lay strewn across the walk. They passed up three young boys on bikes who broke out in a fight, fists flying. Their parents were not far behind, chattering in Spanish on their way to a picnic dinner. Limousines and polished cars were lined on the street across from the lake where the green grounds were covered with girls in bright (often shiny) prom dresses, guys in black tuxes, and a bride or two with her wedding party. A birthday party was being held in a pavilion down the street, the rafters weighted with strings of colored balloons… The evening sun passed through the branches of the pockets of woods clustered around the lake.
It was a quiet evening.