"...you're toast, buddy!"
Friday, December 10, 2004
It was yet another gray exam day – perfect weather, not even a mite too cold, really, for being out and about. This time Mom would drive her over to Manchester, and hopefully, she would have the same smile on her face when coming out the front squeaky glass door. However, she preferred not to jump to conclusions if at all possible, and managed to study her psychology terms on the kitchen counter while toasting OLeif’s brown bread for breakfast.
She decided to quickly recollect the day’s previous events – On the way to work, she noted that once again the fountain on the community college campus was muddy brown, as it had been for several weeks at least. It seemed they had no intention of turning it off, even though algae could hardly begin to form in the middle of December. And, upon passing the Knights of Columbus, the sign still read –
CHRISTMAS TREE LOT
OPEN DAILY
TILL 9PM
She liked the idea of Christmas tree lots, often run by the Boy Scouts. And every year they all couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor Christmas trees left over to be carted away and used for who knew what, once the holidays were over.
At work, Ivy had her annual three-tiered glass candy jar packed full of delicious Christmas chocolates, ready for the grabbing on her desk. However, Collette attempted to maintain self-control and wait until her lunch was finished. Eventually, however, she gave in at about eleven o’clock and grabbed a chocolate bell out of the top dish on the way to pick up a freshly printed sheet from the printer behind her desk.
Before Ivy left for her “Thursday-ly” mini-sabbatical, she showed Collette a rather large plastic ring from one of the new plastic jelly jars, and asked if she had any at home. Apparently, Maxwell loved his new play toy — the great purple ring — and began to whine if ever he couldn’t find it. Collette laughed and promised to bring one by if she bought a plastic jar of jelly.
“Those cats,” she chuckled, thinking of Joy and Max.
They were hilarious – like little kids in cat costumes or – such personalities!
Then, after Ivy left for Guacamole’s for lunch, Collette received a phone call from Joe, who seemed quite calmly excited.
“Collette, I got my driver’s license.”
“Whoa – that’s awesome, Joe. That’s great.”
“I don’t think I did too well. The instructor didn’t see me look all ways before I stopped at the stop sign. I used my peripheral vision, so he didn’t see me turn my head.”
“That’s OK. At least you know you looked.”
“But I aced the parallel parking.”
“Wonderful! Are you going to drive to Scouts tonight?”
“Yeah – at least to the Silverspoon’s and leave the car there.”
He was so happy to finally have the coveted license, and now that OLeif had offered to sell him his old ’89 Honda, although a manual, Joe had already sketched out professional-like detailed designs of the revisions he would make on it. Collette looked them over later, still always amazed at the level of detail and pencil shading, and noticed a small label he had placed near the body, entitled “crushed glass – maroon.” When she asked Joe about it, he explained that it was a certain type of paint with bits of glass, so the car would always sparkle from every angle. It sounded quite cool, she told him.
After the phone call, still at work, she battled a nasty nosebleed as she sometimes encountered in dry weather, and when recovered, designed a flyer for the bulletin. She pasted a small swag of flowers from clip-art at the bottom, as it was a request for stories and memories to place in an album for the Younger family. Then she selected a stack of lunar blue paper from the paper shelf in the kitchen and set it aside for the following morning’s printing.
Meanwhile, she thought of making eggs for dinner, fried in butter and lightly peppered and salted… it did sound delicious, and then for a nice cozy read on the couch with The Long Winter. However, to tide her over, she selected another crunchy chocolate bell from Ivy’s desk, and unwrapped the foil to reveal a fun fact – “What nation devours the most sweet potatoes?” She guessed India, however the answer was China. She smoothed out the foil and later tacked it on the cork-board for the kids back at home. She knew they liked little facts such as that.
After Ivy returned, the printer began acting up slightly as usual, and she managed to jam, cram, fiddle, and punch buttons for a time while Collette used the new aqua ball to seal envelopes.
“Don’t even think of telling me you’re jammed,” Ivy scolded the printer, “or you’re toast, buddy!”
And soon it was time to leave for the day, and tutor, prepare soup (instead of the nice hot-buttered fried eggs, which she saved for the following morning with thick slices of toasted brown bread), and take a nice long sleep to be ready bright and early for the following morning.
Then it happened again – Diana was to go on to Wheaton after all. Collette wasn’t entirely sure what to think. She was happy for her, and yet, she had quickly become used to the idea of having her back again, and now here she was off, once more. It was a semi-frustrating concept.
Her mind briefly turned to the thought of soft white bread deli subs with thick red corned beef, muenster, provolone, smoked cheddar, and Gouda cheeses, with a small bit of mayonnaise. It sounded good for a birthday lunch. But there really was no need to bother. There would be no time to celebrate anyway. That thought did not bother her much, but knowing that Diana was still leaving certainly botched the idea of helping anything. It would be a lonely spring with everyone else off making plans.
She was pleased to pass her exam in Chesterfield as the sky began to pile high with darkness in the north. She and Mom discussed Christmas presents, decorations, plans, and such… while Mom purchased a lovely sage-knit sweater to match her eyes, and thought about an oil and herb set from various European countries for Aunt Petunia for Christmas… She picked up a small wrapper of hotly salted fries for them to munch on the way back.
That night at Lion’s Choice with the rest of the family, (minus Carrie-Bri who was at work and disliked eating at restaurants anyway…), the rain finely misted down, and they discussed the happenings among the noise of all the wealthier high school students in the valley over hot roast beef and thick malts.
Deciding on the location to eat took a spell before they settled on the Lion anyway.
“Let’s eat at the gas station,” Joe suggested, as they whizzed past, “they have homemade cookies.”
“Yeah,” Rose said, “Granny’s Home Baked Cookies – a.k.a. machine-made cookies.”
And half an hour later they were seated with the hot sandwiches while Collette tested out her new digital sound recorder in preparation of her library of conversations. Later, Dad and Joe hauled up the desk to their apartment, which she would borrow a spell to organize her papers and OLeif’s montage of computer equipment.