While You Were There

After an hour of delivering papers to teachers, administering Tums and Advil, answering phones – and MLB somehow finding the need to text me about the Braves’ new ballpark opening in 2017 – I left the school office for two hours at Ditto.

It was pretty quiet; I like that. And two hours can pass quickly enough if you spend the whole time walking sweaters and jeans to their appropriate “rounders.” Gives you time to think.

Mom and Carrie stopped by to look around, and Carrie passed off a Cliff Bar to me since two tablespoons of peanut butter weren’t cutting it for lunch.

I left with a handful of autumn clothes for Puck, including a traffic cone orange sweatshirt that I knew would be a big hit.

Puck was a little upset that he hadn’t finished his Bible paper that afternoon. He finished writing about half a sentence out of six.

“All the other kids finished theirs!”

We looked over it at home. One of the questions read, “I am pleased that God created the fruit/vegetable: fill-in-the-blank.”

Puck pondered his answer. “Bacon.”

“Bacon isn’t a fruit or a vegetable, hon.”

He put a finger to his chin. “I guess I’ll go with steak.”

In my defense, this kid gets his Five-A-Day in every day. He eats more fruits and vegetables in one day than I eat in half a year. So, the confusion is clearly unwarranted.

Anyway, Puck hadn’t been so bothered by the whole “being behind thing” to ignore the “new” orange sweatshirt or his well-loved pump-up music on the drive home. I occasionally hear him singing along when he doesn’t think I’m listening too hard.

“All the citizens of St. Louis … are in love wiff David Freese.”

El Oso drove home with enough time to read part of Leo Geo to Puck, his new favorite thin-and-rectangular book. Then I reheated El Oso’s pork chops and sweet potato with a side of cashews, while he went out to bring in Ben & Jerry’s.

I switched the game off before hitting hay. Twelve innings were too much when I had a six o’clock alarm for Wednesday.