When Puck Gets a Day Off
When Puck gets a day off school, he manages to squeeze out every drop to good use. Today, his fascination centered around a small Coca-Cola thermos purchased as part of a fountain drink pass on our first Caribbean cruise. For some reason that thing has still stuck around ten years later.
So naturally the Coke thermos went on one hand. And Puck became Puck-Cyborg. He burst through the front door out into cold sunshine and wind, bellowing loudly.
“COKE GUN! COKE GUN!”
Puck retired the Coke Gun in time for lunch and a little Andy Griffith. But because there’s always too much to do, he barely made it through one episode before he started beating the guts out of an organic pomegranate on the counter.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
“THIS IS THE TRICK TO GETTING IT OUT, MOM!”
He smacked the halved pomegranate with the back of a big plastic spoon until eventually his hunger for juicy pomegranate overtook his patience, and he just tore it open with his fingers.
El Oso was joining fellow churchmen for a brief retreat somewhere I couldn’t remember where for the evening. I’d heard Joe and Francis talk something about making a late night Waffle House run if the food supplies weren’t sufficient.
So Puck and I drove out to the Silverspoon residence in the late afternoon to join a small evening crowd for movie night.
Puck had a plan in his head to pass the time before Gloria returned from the office. I sat and worked at the dining room window to keep an eye on the growing buster in the front yard. Soon, I noticed what he was doing.
Smashed stomach-down in the lawn against the mailbox flowers, he flattened himself as thin as possible every time a car thundered past. This game of “spy” lasted for way longer than I could have thought possible. He finally ended it when a new distraction presented itself:
Woolly Bug.
“MOM! MOM!”
The fuzzy red critter had rolled himself up into a ball, playing dead. Puck found a cardboard box and loaded it up with fresh green leaves and blossoms.
“What are you going to name him, bud?”
“Bob.”
Typical. A name his dad would have chosen. A few holes sliced out of the top and side of the box for “windows” and Woolly Bug Bob was all set up for chrysalis-weaving.
While Gloria attended a women’s wedding shower and Puck snored in the back room, three tired girls in the forms of Collette, Carrie-Bri, and Rose watched no less than six ridiculous episodes of “Kath & Kim” over chocolate donuts.