Winter: The Deceiver
A shadow about four feet, two stood in the doorway at seven o’clock that morning. “Well, I have some good news and I have some bad news.”
“What’s that, son?” Oxbear mumbled sleepily.
“The bad news is – you’re still asleep, Dad.”
With this bad news remedied, and snow still falling, the boys revisited a Saturday morning ritual of Minecraft, as Oxbear opted to stay home from lifting weights and eating a hearty breakfast in South City. Because, the weather had deceived us. How typical. What was initially meant to be more snow and ice, became splashy slush and sunshine, melting brown sugar sludge in the street.
Puck wasn’t complaining. This meant fun in the sun with friends in soupy yards and flooding streets.
By dinner, it was clear that holing up for the day had been unnecessary. Also, Oxbear was hungry. Plates of chopped pork and fresh orange wedges – which Puck greedily consumed – were going to be replaced. I could see it in his eyes: “fast food”.
“Collette, I do feel bad for forcing you to spend more money,” he apologized. “But I won’t change my decision. Heh heh.”
Like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar.
It was also about this time that Puck plucked the solitary fat bean from his Botanical Gardens field trip bean plant. The yellowing leaves signaled inevitable death. I put the bean in the fridge to cook later. Maybe.
Then a Saturday night film – Disney’s first-ever PG film: Anthony Perkins in “Black Hole”.
“Oh dear!” was Puck’s first response to the swirling death trap.
A tense 98 minutes later, the confusing ending prompted Oxbear to do a little iPhone research.
“Can someone please explain to me the ending of ‘Black Hole’?” he read aloud from a movie forum.
“Yeah!” Puck agreed, raising a pointed finger into the air. “We need to press charges!”
The sun sank on the illusion of an aqua world – colder than the color – Oxbear hustling home with Culver’s butter burger bacon cheeseburgers and Jack-in-the-Box mini churros for our own “run for the border”. Sometimes it’s okay to celebrate things.