Wind & "Laura"
Monday, May 23, 2011
In which the winds roar and Vincentennial continues…
Dad and Francis were off to Colorado Spring:
Monday: drive to Colorado.
Tuesday: Air Force Academy and dinner with Joe.
Wednesday: return.
Whirlwind, as could be predicted by any of the Snicketts boys.
Mom was watching the Blunt boy at his home again for the morning.
OLeif and Rose at work.
Linnea-Irish in North Carolina.
This left Collette, Carrie-Bri, and Puck together at the house to see about getting Snuggles into the vet. Something was not well with the poor animal, as Joe had predicted before leaving for the summer. But nothing that a few plungers of pink medicine and pills couldn’t fix.
Meanwhile…
OLeif had another migraine.
And Puck was being his usual Puck self with such interesting phrases as…
“Even when I’m naughty, I still love you.”
Or when Snuggles was meowing very loudly to get outside…
“Just breathe into your deep heart, Snuggles. Deeply into your legs. Just lay down… softly. Softly. Softly. I said quiet. Breathe down into your deep heart.”
Snuggles continued to meow mournfully.
“Snuggles. Snuggles. Give up your mind.”
In the aftermath it had been learned that Joplin had been hit by a huge tornado; the death toll was rising…
As the morning continued, Joe IM’d, warning of approaching severe storms to St. Louis.
This called for the making of a tent in the living room, Puck and his Sun.
And Collette and Puck sat for awhile on the porch before it came.
That tepid shift of motionless cicada drone, last birdsong… The waiting for something to break beyond the mild cool flutter of greenery. Rumbling ramparts, first fringe of violet, legends of Medieval woodland green in that final silence…
The darkness, a sudden heavy cloak.
Carrie brought out a plate of homemade cannolis.
The rain, first, in the softer winds. Tree frogs.
Then the tearing winds, snapping the trees.
With the arrival of the mail had come one of Puck’s favorite pastime, sorting the magazines (aka, advertisements). He ran through the papers one by one, examining ads for hummingbird nectar and all-you-can-eat pancakes from Steak ‘n Shake.
And on to continue with Vincentennial…
After Puck had been reunited with his daddy, who was to watch movies with Erasmus at the house that night, Collette and Mom joined Rose at Wash-U for another free viewing of film noir’s Laura. They dropped in for burgers and milkshakes on the way home, shortly after 9:30.
And that was a day.
“When I was a little girl, I believed that to come from St. Louis made you a member of a very desirable club. I got this impression because whenever my dad met someone from his hometown, he greeted him or her as though he had just found a long-lost friend… When the reminisces came to an end, they would part, friends for life. And all because they both came from St. Louis… I never heard people who came from other places ramble on with this kind of rapture about their hometowns.”
— Victoria Price, daughter of Vincent Price